The Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, regulations say that your employer has to pay you for certain hours worked – but what are those hours, and what can you do if you’re not paid for working them?
Under FLSA, your employer has to pay you for all compensable time. Compensable time is time that you worked for your employer. Hourly employees working off the clock are often entitled to pay for what they’re doing, as are some on-call hourly employees.
FLSA says, “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 at the end of the shift to finish an assigned task or to correct errors. The reason is immaterial. The hours are work time and are compensable.”
This can include:
Time you spend waiting for work may be compensable (your employer might have to pay you for it). The Department of Labor gives these examples: “A secretary who reads a book while waiting for dictation or a fireman who plays checkers while waiting for an alarm is working during such periods of inactivity. These employees have been ‘engaged to wait.’”
Being engaged to wait is considered work time. However, if you’re waiting to be engaged, that’s not work time. If you’re not sure about the difference, talk to a Glendale employment lawyer who can evaluate your specific situation.
Sometimes employees who are required to remain on-call are entitled to pay. Generally – but not always – a worker who has to stay on the employer’s premises while on-call is entitled to pay, while one who’s allowed to go home isn’t. However, sometimes employees who are allowed to go home when they’re on call are still entitled to pay. That may happen when an employer puts certain restrictions on what the employee can and can’t do while at home.
Learn more about on-call pay for hourly employees.
In most cases, employers are required to pay workers for rest breaks. The time the employee is on break often needs to count as hours worked, too. However, bona fide meal periods that last 30 minutes or more don’t usually have to be paid time – but the employee is still entitled to take that meal break. If the employee is required to work through lunch, it doesn’t count as a meal break.
If an employee is scheduled to be on duty for less than 24 hours can still be considered to be working if he or she is sleeping. If an employee needs to be on duty for 24 hours or more, he or she can agree to exclude regularly scheduled sleeping periods from compensable time. That means you could agree with your employer that you won’t be paid for time you spend sleeping. However, that period can’t exceed 8 hours, and your employer has to provide adequate sleeping facilities and you can reasonably expect to “enjoy an uninterrupted night’s sleep.”
Your employer can’t reduce your wage for that period unless you sleep at least 5 hours.
Your employer does not have to pay you for attending lectures, meetings or training programs if it can meet these four criteria:
Sometimes employers are required to pay for travel time, and sometimes they’re not. Here’s a quick breakdown:
If you believe your employer has violated FLSA regulations on pay, you should talk to a Glendale employment lawyer as soon as possible.
Call us at 818-230-8380 for a free case review. We’ll answer your questions and talk about possible outcomes of your case, as well as give you the legal advice you need.
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