It depends. Day laborers often have problems getting paid for all the time they are required to wait before and after performing a job. The standard used to determine whether or not a day laborer is entitled to be paid for time spent waiting revolves around whether a day laborer was required to be at the employer's disposal, (at either the day labor agency or the work site) during the time in question. If you are not free to leave the premises and use the time for your own purposes, then you should be paid. Generally, this means that you should at least be paid wages from the time that a job is assigned. Prior to an assignment, you are usually free to stay or go as you wish and so courts are unlikely to consider you to be employed before a job is assigned. This makes it more difficult to get paid for the period between arriving at the labor hall, or job pick-up site, and the time the job is assigned. If you are required to report (at the day labor agency or worksite) at a specified time and wait each day for the same job over a number of days, it is easier for you to get paid for that waiting time, even if you have to wait until a later time for the actual work to begin. Your employer does not have to pay you for time you spend before or after work on activities at the worksite that are solely for your own convenience and are not integral to your job. The issue is whether the waiting was primarily for your own benefit or for the employer's benefit.