Workers are often confused about what activities are considered "work" for which they must be paid, as opposed to activities for which the employer has no legal obligation to pay the employee. The basic principle guiding "work time" is that an employee must be paid for any time spent on activities that are controlled by and that benefit the employer. This not only includes your regular "on-the-clock" work time, but also includes any "off-the-clock" time you spend performing job-related activities which benefit your employer. If your employer knows that you are doing work (or could have found out by looking), and lets you do it, your employer will be responsible for paying for your work time. Employers cannot "allow" you to work on your "own time." With only a few exceptions, all time an employee is required to be at the premises of the employer is work time. All regular shift time is work time. This includes most "breaks" (if there are breaks), and "nonproductive" time (for example, time spent by a call center employee waiting for the phone to ring). In addition, all time you spend performing work-related activities that the employer permits is work time, whether on your employer's premises or not, and whether "required" or not. Work done "at home" or at a place other than the normal work site is work, and the time must be counted as work time for which you are paid. "Voluntary" work is work, and the time must be counted. "Unauthorized" or "unapproved" work is work and must be counted (provided that the employer knows or should know it is being done and permits you to do it anyway). The employer is charged with controlling the work of its employees. If an employer does not wish you to perform work, it must keep you from working if it does not wish to pay for that work. An employer may not accept the benefit(s) of work performed by its nonexempt employees without counting the time in computing the employee's pay. This principle is called “suffered or permitted to work” time by the Department of Labor. It is definedas “any work performed by an employee for the benefit of an agency, whether requested or not, provided the employee’s supervisor knows or has reason to believe that the work is being performed and has an opportunity to prevent the work from being performed.” These hours are considered work time and are compensable. Here is how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) addresses some common work-related activities in the context of work time: Waiting Time: Whether waiting time counts as work time is somewhat ambiguous and thus depends on the particular circumstances. Broadly, if the employee is “engaged to wait,” that time is considered work time. This nonproductive time, such as time spent by a call center employee waiting for the phone to ring, is considered work time. On-Call Time: If being on-call requires the employee to remain on the employer’s premises, this is considered work time. If the employee is allowed to be on-call at home or elsewhere, this may not be considered work time. If the employee has more freedom while on-call, it is often not counted as hours worked, but if the employee is under more restricted conditions while being on-call (such as the employee being burdened with calls from the employer preventing personal use of the time), it may be counted as hours worked. Rest and Meal Periods: Short rest periods (usually 20 minutes or less) are typically paid for as working time. Longer meal periods (usually 30 minutes or more) are typically not counted as work time. However during these meal times the employee must be completely relieved from duty and must be free to do what they wish while on break. Sleeping Time and Certain Other Activities: If the employee is required to be on the employer’s premises while on duty for a shift that is less than 24 hours, then any time the employee is allowed to sleep during the shift is considered work time. If the employee is on duty for 24 hours or more, the employer and employee may come to an agreement to exclude 8 hours from the shift. However, if the employee is not able to sleep for at least 5 of those excluded hours, they must be paid for the whole shift. If the employee resides on the employer’s premises or works from home (such as nannies or housekeepers that live in the home), then employers generally do not have to pay employees for sleeping time. Lectures, Meetings, and Training Programs: This time must be counted as work time unless it is outside of normal hours, it is voluntary, it is not job related, and no other work is concurrently performed. Travel Time: Whether or not travel time is considered work time depends on the type of travel involved. See question 9 for more details on the different kinds of travel. While all actual work time must be counted, only actual work time must be counted. This means that hours where you are not working do not count as work time, even if you are paid for them. For example, leave time (paid time off such as vacation, holiday, and sick time) and meal time are not considered as work time. In addition to leave time and meal periods, other potential "time not worked" may include some travel time, and sleep time Almost every employee that earns a wage rather than a salary has been guilty of waiting eight minutes after the scheduled clock-out time to gain a quarter hours pay after rounding up and the flip side of clocking-in just at seven minutes causing the employee to lose time. Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that for logging time, neutral-timekeeping is lawful under the FLSA. Neutral time keeping refers to a time log system that neither favors the employee nor the employer in the clock-in or clock-out process. For example, a non-neutral timekeeping method would be a situation where an employee would be paid the entire quarter hour, even if he punched in late by six minutes. This would be favorable to the employee. Clock-in times and clock-out times have been litigated recently.