There are fair labor standards laws in most states that govern payment for overtime etc. for different types of employees so the answer will be very fact-dependent. For most hourly, minimum-wage, non-managerial employees (as distinct from administrative staff, teachers who are generally on annual salaries) you cannot ask employees to work additional time “off the clock” to avoid having to pay them for their work. It gets more complicated if you modify their weekly average hours (e.g. go from a 40 hour average for a 10 month year to a lower average for a 12 month year). However, if the change in required hours reduces the effective hourly rate below minimum wage, that would be illegal in most jurisdictions. These workers are not on contract so a reduction in hour wages per se is not illegal and they can leave for another job if they don’t want to work at a lower hourly wage or don’t want to work in the summer months.
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