# Does a volunteer firefighter qualify as an employee for overtime pay? - Jurisdiction: United States - Practice area: Employment Law - Published: 2026-10-22 - Last updated: 2026-10-22 - Canonical: https://lawasked.com/us/employment-law/volunteer-firefighter-qualify-employee-overtime-pay ## Question I volunteer at a volunteer fire department in my town, and the department is part of the local government. I receive no salary, but I am sometimes given a small amount to cover fuel or meals. I also work a regular full-time job and respond to fires and emergency calls at night. The fire chief sometimes asks whether I should be paid for all the hours I spend responding to calls and training. Am I treated as an employee for purposes of minimum-wage and overtime rules, or does my volunteer status exclude me? I mainly want to know whether my regular job’s pay is affected if the calls take more than 40 hours in a workweek. ## Summary You generally are not an FLSA employee for the fire department if your service is voluntary and you receive only expenses or a nominal fee, and the volunteer work is not the same type of service for which the department already employs you. Those volunteer hours ordinarily do not count toward your regular job's 40-hour overtime threshold, but actual employment by the fire department could change the result. ## Analysis Under the FLSA, a public agency is an employer, and the general definition of “employee” includes individuals employed by a State or political subdivision. However, 29 U.S.C. § 203(e)(4)(A) expressly excludes an individual who volunteers to perform services for such a public agency when two conditions are met: the individual receives no compensation, or only expenses, reasonable benefits, or a nominal fee; and the volunteered services are not the same type of services that the individual is employed to perform for the public agency [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec203]. Your description strongly supports that exclusion. You receive no salary, and occasional reimbursement for fuel or meals appears to be expense reimbursement rather than compensation for labor. If you are not already employed by the department to perform firefighting, emergency-response, or similar services, your volunteer work falls within the statutory volunteer exclusion [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec203]. The small amounts you receive do not automatically convert you into an employee so long as they are bona fide expense reimbursements, benefits, or a nominal fee rather than pay for the hours worked [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec203]. The consequence is that the volunteer calls ordinarily are not employment hours under the FLSA and therefore do not become overtime hours at your unrelated regular job. The ordinary FLSA overtime rule generally requires compensation at least one and one-half times the regular rate for covered employment exceeding 40 hours in a workweek [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec207]. Your regular employer ordinarily measures its own workweek, and volunteer firefighting time excluded from employee status is not hours worked for that employer under the supplied provisions. If the fire department actually employs you for fire protection activities, however, the volunteer exclusion may not apply; the statutory definition of an “employee in fire protection activities” includes trained firefighters who are employed by a municipal, county, fire-district, or State fire department and perform fire suppression or emergency-response duties [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec203]. If you are employed rather than merely volunteering, the fire-protection overtime provisions may apply. A public agency is not ordinarily deemed to violate the 40-hour overtime rule when covered fire-protection employees receive the prescribed overtime compensation under the statutory 28-day work-period rule, or the applicable shorter work-period rule [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec207]. Public-agency employees may also be compensated with compensatory time under specified conditions, including an advance agreement and applicable accrual limits [cite:us-title29-flsa-sec207]. ## Statutory citations - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 203 - Definitions [in force] (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203) > The term “employee” does not include any individual who volunteers to perform services for a public agency ... if the individual receives no compensation or is paid expenses, reasonable benefits, or a nominal fee ... and such services are not the same type of services which the individual is employed to perform for such public agency. - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 203 - Definitions [in force] (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203) > “Employee in fire protection activities” means an employee, including a firefighter ... who is trained in fire suppression, has the legal authority and responsibility to engage in fire suppression, and is employed by a fire department ... and is engaged in the prevention, control, and extinguishment of fires or response to emergency situations. - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 207 - Maximum hours [in force] (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section207) > No employer shall employ any of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce ... for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate. - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 207 - Maximum hours [in force] (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section207) > No public agency shall be deemed to have violated subsection (a) with respect to the employment of any employee in fire protection activities ... if ... in a work period of 28 consecutive days the employee receives for tours of duty ... compensation at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate. --- General information only, not legal advice. 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