Things You May Not Have Known About Punching or Clocking In and Out

Do you punch in and out of work using a time clock? That seemingly straightforward machine or software, or the simple act of punching in and out, actually carries a lot of legal requirements, to make it legal. When employers violate these laws, they could end up owing you money for unpaid hours or unpaid overtime.

Tracking Your Time

Your employer must provide a neutral and objective way of tracking your hours. Most do—but employers who say they will “just watch you,” or that they somehow know when you arrive and leave work, without some objective measure of tracking your hours, are breaking state and federal wage and hour laws.

Working Without Being Paid

It is illegal for your employer to require you to work after you’ve clocked out. But the problem is that many employers won’t actually ask you to work off the clock. They’ll suggest or pressure you to do so, and then later, assert that your working off the clock was voluntary.

This is illegal. So long as your employer knows that you’re working off the clock, your employer must pay you—even if your employer never specifically asked you to work off the clock.

Rounding Up or Down

Yes, your employer is allowed to round up or down, when you clock out, to make pay calculations easier. Most employers will round up if you work 8 minutes or more in a quarter hour, and will round down if you work less than that. So, for example, if you worked until 1:37pm, you may only get paid up to 1:30pm. Whereas, if you’d worked to 1:38pm, you would have gotten paid as if you’d worked to 1:45pm.

Importantly though, rounding must go both ways—your employer cannot just round downward, and never round upward. And the system cannot result in you always being underpaid—you must be overpaid for rounding up, equally to the time that you are rounded downwards, in a system that is neutrally applied.

Work Before and After

In some cases, your employer may ask or expect you to do some work before you clock in. Many employers may, for example, have you put on uniforms or protective gear, or get equipment ready.

While federal law generally says that an employer can do this without paying you so long as what you are doing is “de minimis” (meaning insignificant, or too small to matter), California laws are much stricter.

California generally requires that an employer pay you for any and all work that you do. Still, California law does allow for some flexibility, so, for example, if your employer has you do small chores before clocking in or conversely, if you clock in a bit before you actually start working, that shouldn’t be an issue.

Questions about whether you’re being paid for the hours you’re working? Contact the California wage and hour attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today for help.

Source:

law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2012/d060710.htm