---
kind: "section"
citation: "49 U.S.C. § 28301"
title: "49"
title_heading: "Transportation"
number: "28301"
heading: "General"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/49/28301"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Rail Programs"
  - "Part E — Miscellaneous"
  - "Chapter 283 — Standard Work Day"
---

# §28301. General

- (a) **Eight Hour Day.—** In contracts for labor and service, 8 hours shall be a day’s work and the standard day’s work for determining the compensation for services of an [employee](/usc/49/21101.md?p=3) employed by a common carrier by [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) subject to subtitle IV of this title and actually engaged in any capacity in operating trains used for transporting passengers or property on [railroads](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) from—
  - (1) a [State](/usc/49/26105.md?p=5) of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other [State](/usc/49/26105.md?p=5) or the District of Columbia;
  - (2) one place in a territory or possession of the United States to another place in the same territory or possession;
  - (3) a place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country; or
  - (4) a place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States.
- (b) **Application.—** [Subsection (a)](#a) of this section—
  - (1) does not apply to—
    - (A) an independently owned and operated [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) not exceeding one hundred miles in length;
    - (B) an electric street [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12); and
    - (C) an electric interurban [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12); but
  - (2) does apply to an independently owned and operated [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) less than one hundred miles in length—
    - (A) whose principal business is leasing or providing terminal or transfer facilities to other [railroads](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12); or
    - (B) engaged in transfers of freight between [railroads](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) or between [railroads](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) and industrial plants.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 104–287, § 5(56)(A), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3394.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 28301 | 45:65. | Sept. 3, 5, 1916, ch. 436, § 1, 39 Stat. 721. |
|  | (uncodified). | Sept. 3, 5, 1916, ch. 436, §§ 2, 3, 39 Stat. 721. |

In subsection (a), the word “determining” is substituted for “reckoning” for clarity. The words “who are not or may hereafter be employed” are omitted as surplus. In clause (1), the words “or territory” are omitted because the existing territories of the United States are now connected to the United States by rail. In clause (2), the words “or possession of the United States” are added for consistency in the revised title and with other titles of the United States Code.

The text of sections 2 and 3 of the Act of September 3, 5, 1916 (ch. 436, 39 Stat. 721), is omitted to eliminate executed provisions.