The time that employers must pay for isn't always clear. To help make sense of the confusion, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about when companies have to pay employees based on Labor
What States Require
Most states have labor regulations similar or the same as federal labor regulations. Click here to see what your state labor department requires.
The Supreme Court Weighs In
The Supreme Court took up the issue of compensable time in a case involving employees of meat production and poultry plants who were required to put on protective gear and walk to the production floor at the start of each day. At the end of the day, they had to walk back to the locker room and take off the gear.
The issue before the Court was whether the time walking to and from the production floor should be paid time. The Court held the time to actually "don" and "doff" the gear was compensable, under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The employees asserted that their workday began once they put on the gear. The employers maintained that the walking time was a commute or a break.
The Justices applied the "continuous workday" principle, which states that compensable time begins with the first principal activity of the day and ends with the last principal activity.
Because wearing the equipment was mandatory, the court ruled that the first and last principal activities were donning and doffing the gear. Time in between was work time that had to be paid for.
However, the court ruled against the employees on another issue: Sometimes employees would have to wait until protective gear was available. Applying the same "continuous workday" principle, the court ruled that because "wait time occurred before the first principal activity, the employer wasn't obliged to pay for that time. (IBP, Inc., vs. Gabriel Alvarez, et al, No. 03-1238, Nov. 8, 2005)
Department regulations:
Q.
Do We Have to Pay Employees On Call?
Yes, your company is required to pay employees if you require them to remain on your premises while they wait for an assignment (for example, firefighters waiting for an emergency call). If this is the case, they are considered to be working and must be paid, even if they are doing other things, such as playing cards.
No, you don't have to pay employees if you allow them to go home and they are free to leave messages saying where they can be reached. In most cases like these, the employees are not considered to be working.
Yes, you must pay employees if you allow them to leave but restrict their activities, (such as requiring them to remain close to the workplace or not drink alcohol while on call).
Q.
Do We Have to Pay for Travel Time?
No, you do not have to pay employees for the time they spend commuting back and forth from home.
Yes, you have to pay for travel time if you have maintenance employees who use their own cars every day to travel to your branch offices in neighboring cities. You pay for time between locations.
Q.
Do We Have to Pay for Meal Time and Rest Breaks?
Yes, you do have to pay if the employee continues working during lunch or rest breaks. For example, if your receptionist spends her lunchtime at her desk, answering the phone as usual and has not been relieved of her duties, you do have to pay her for the time. What if she works during lunch breaks against your instructions? It's up to you to enforce the rules.
State laws regulate break periods, including the minimum time required for meals and rest breaks and whether the time must be paid. But even states that don't require paid breaks do require employers to pay employees if job duties are performed during long breaks, such as lunch or rest periods during long shifts.
Q.
Do We have to Pay for Sleep Time?
Yes, you must pay for sleep time if employees sleep less than five hours or are on duty for less than 24 hours. They are considered to be working for those hours, even if they are allowed to sleep or engage in other personal activities during non-busy times.
No, you don't have to pay if your employees work 24 hours or more and you have an agreement that their work hours will exclude bona fide regularly scheduled sleep periods for not more than eight hours - as long as you provide sleeping facilities and they can generally sleep uninterrupted.
