A 9x80 is the 9/80 work schedule written with a multiplication sign instead of a slash, and it means the same thing: eighty hours worked over nine days in a two-week period, with the tenth day off. Eight of the nine days are nine hours and one is eight, and the day off is usually every other Friday. This page is for the person who has just been told their team is moving to a 9x80 and wants to know what is a 9x80 schedule in practice: what the 9x80 schedule calendar looks like across a year, how the hours add up, what a 9x80 work schedule does to a Friday, and the three things to check before it starts.
The 9x80 calendar across a year
Twenty-six fortnights, each with nine working days and one Friday off, gives twenty-six long weekends a year. Pay periods that run fortnightly line up exactly with the cycle; monthly and semi-monthly pay periods do not, and the hours in a pay period will vary while the hours per fortnight stay at eighty. Holidays that fall on a working Friday are usually observed as the holiday; holidays that fall on the off Friday are the argument every 9x80 workplace has once, and the policy should be written before the first one lands.
How the hours add up
Four nine-hour days and one eight-hour day in week one is 44 hours; four nine-hour days in week two is 36; eighty across the fortnight, 40.5 hours a week on average when the eight-hour day is split as the pay rules expect. For salaried staff that is the whole arithmetic. For hourly staff the federal workweek must be defined to start mid-way through the eight-hour day so that each seven-day week is exactly forty hours; otherwise week one carries four hours of overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The rotating schedule generator on this site gives the average from nine days on in a fourteen-day cycle at nine hours; the workweek definition is the part no worksheet can do for you.
Three things to check before adopting a 9x80
First, the workweek definition in writing, fixed and applied the same every fortnight. Second, the state's daily overtime rule: California requires overtime over eight hours in a day unless an alternative workweek schedule has been adopted by a two-thirds vote of the affected employees and filed with the state, and a 9x80 is exactly such a schedule. Third, coverage: a whole office off every other Friday suits an engineering firm and not a front desk, so the crew that has to answer the phone is split into two groups with opposite Fridays. Once those three are settled the 9x80 is one of the simplest schedules to publish.
Questions people ask about 9x80
Is a 9x80 the same as a 9/80?
Yes. Two ways of writing the same schedule: nine working days and eighty hours in two weeks, with every other Friday off.
How many Fridays off do you get on a 9x80?
Twenty-six a year, every other week. Some workplaces let staff choose which Friday in the fortnight is theirs so that half the team is always in.
Does a 9x80 need a vote in California?
For non-exempt employees, yes: California's daily overtime rule applies over eight hours unless an alternative workweek schedule is adopted by a two-thirds secret ballot of the affected work unit and reported to the state.