Question
When we hire non-exempt employees, they don’t really perform any “work” for the first few days on the job. All they do is complete training and fill out paperwork. Do we need to pay them for this time, since they aren’t actually “working” yet?
Answer
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) defines the term “employ” to include the words “suffer or permit to work.” The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that employees subject to the FLSA must be paid for all time spent in “physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer.” Thus, employees would most likely be entitled to pay for time spent training and filling out paperwork at an employer’s request.
That said, attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time if four criteria are met:
If all four of the above criteria are satisfied, non-exempt employees need not be paid. However, if any one of the criteria is not met, employees must be paid for the time spent participating in the activity. As the U.S. Departmentof Labor has stated, “An employer cannot sit back and accept the benefits of an employee’s work without considering the time spent to be hours worked.” Be sure to check your state and local laws for additional requirements, and remember that if federal, state and/or local standards differ, the rules providing the most protection to employees will generally apply.