Show Up Early, So You Won’t Be Late to Work

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A business owner from Wisconsin called me the other day to revise his out-of-date Employee Handbook. One of the standard chapters in an Employee Handbook is Compensation and Timekeeping, which addresses topics like timesheets, paydays, and overtime. Within that topic discussion, I asked the owner when the payroll period begins and ends, which is necessary to determine potential overtime wages. The owner answered, 12:01 a.m. on Sunday (i.e., Saturday night) to midnight on the following Saturday. Easily done.

From that clarification, I then asked within that weekly pay period, when do the field employees normally start their daily work shifts. The owner replied that field employees normally work from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. But, he added, because so many employees show up late to work every day, usually between 7:00 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., he now tells his employees to be at work by 6:50 a.m. so they will then be ready to leave the yard at 7:00 a.m.

I promptly told the owner that if he is requiring non-exempt field employees to be at work by 6:50 a.m. each day, and if they show up at that time, that is the beginning of their workday, not 7:00 a.m. He told me that they are not doing any work from 6:50 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and as such should not be paid for those 10 minutes each day. While partially correct, I then told the owner that since he is requiring them to be at work by 6:50 a.m., and if they show up, they are technically “under his control” for those 10 minutes, which means he must compensate them for that time. Non-payment of that time violates both the Fair Labor Standards Act and Wisconsin’s wage and hour laws.

With that fact in mind, I suggested that the owner return the daily start time to 7:00 a.m. and begin to document those employees who report to work late. That action is completely legal, while not paying non-exempt employees for controlled time suggests non-compliance with wage and hour laws.

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