1) Do I have to pay my employees for training time?
When your employees participate in required training, whether on site or online, that time must be
recorded, and paid for. They also must be paid for any time spent in training while they shadow
experienced employees, or do anything else related to their current jobs.
In order for time spent during training programs, meetings, lectures, and similar activities not to be
counted as hours worked, it must meet all four of the following criteria: it must be outside of normal
hours; it must be voluntary; it must not be job related; and no other work is concurrently
performed. Time spent completing online training, even when completed away from the worksite,
must be counted as work time unless all of these criteria are met. Online courses are often job
related and are often not voluntary.
2 I have an employee who is very slow, and takes an extra half hour to close the store every night.
Do I have to pay for that time?
Yes. Work not requested but suffered or permitted to be performed is work time that must be
paid for by the employer. For example, an employee may voluntarily continue to work past the end
of a shift to finish an assigned task, to finish cleaning the store, or to cover for an employee on the
next shift who has not yet shown up. Or, similarly, an employee may show up early, before the
scheduled shift begins, to begin food prep so that the store can open on time. The reason does not
matter. The hours, both pre-shift and post-shift, are work time and are compensable.
2) Do I have to pay my employees for the time they spend on breaks?
Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry (and promote the
efficiency of the employee) and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be
counted as hours worked.
Bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work
time. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals in
order for that time not to be compensable. The employee is not relieved if he/she is required to
perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, an employee whose
break is interrupted to wait on a customer is not relieved from duty.
3) What about travel time?
Time spent in travel as part of an employees work activity, like traveling from job site to job site
during the workday, is work time and must be counted as hours worked. If an employee drives from
one store location to another during the workday, that time must be recorded and paid for.
The FLSA requires that covered, non-exempt employees must be paid at least the federal minimum wage of
$7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions,
bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers are also required to maintain
accurate time and payroll records. The amount employees should receive cannot be determined without
knowing the number of hours worked.
For additional information on the requirements of the FLSA, visit the U. S. Department of Labor Wage and
Hour Division
s website at www.dol.gov/whd, or call 866-4US-WAGE (866-487-9243). Your state may have
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