Can My Employer Round My Hours?
Hourly employees must be fully compensated for the amount of time they work, and they must be paid fairly according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the FLSA, hourly employees must be paid at least the minimum wage per hour (Florida has a higher minimum wage of $12 per hour than the federal minimum wage), and hourly employees must be paid time and a half for overtime hours worked beyond 40 hours in the workweek. In addition, although the FLSA does not require employers to provide employees with paid breaks, employees must be completely free from work duties during meal breaks or must be paid for them. If employees are not paid fairly under the FLSA, they can be victims of wage theft and may be able to seek a remedy.
One way in which an employee can have wages stolen is through certain rounding practices of hours worked. What does it mean for an employer to round your hours? And is this practice lawful? Our Palm Beach Gardens employment law attorneys can provide you with more information.
What Does It Mean to Round Hours?
What is hour rounding, or what does it mean if an employer rounds hours of an employee? In short, when an employer is keeping a timesheet, the employer might round the employee’s hours in an attempt to make timekeeping easier, or, in some cases, to reduce the amount of money an employee is ultimately paid over time. Rounding can be done up (such as rounding an employee’s 55 minutes of work up to an hour), or down (such as rounding an employee’s 65 minutes of work down to 60 minutes).
Certain types of rounding are lawful under the FLSA, while others are not.
Is It Legal for My Employer to Round My Hours?
First, the FLSA does allow employers to round an employee’s time to the nearest 5 minute time stamp, to the nearest tenth of one hour (6 minutes), or to the nearest quarter hour (15 minutes). In other words, hours can be rounded by 5 minutes, 6 minutes, or 15 minutes. But this cannot be done in a way that results in an employee losing pay over time.
The US Department of Labor clarifies that rounding can only be done if “it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.” Employees cannot be underpaid as a result of rounding.
Generally speaking, rounding must be done neutrally, and it must be applied to all employees equally. If you are having your hours rounded down in a manner that benefits your employer — even if the time seems minimal or insignificant — the practice is likely unlawful. Further, employers in general should only engage in rounding if it provides more benefit to employees over time. Accordingly, if your employer routinely rounds down to avoid paying you and other employees, you should strongly consider a claim.
Contact a Palm Beach Gardens Wage and Hour Lawyer
If you believe your hours were rounded in a manner that resulted in you receiving less pay than what you were owed, or if you experienced any other kind of wage theft, you should seek legal advice as soon as possible. An experienced Palm Beach Gardens wage and hour law attorney at Sconzo Law Office can talk to you today to learn more about your case, and we can provide you with more information about options for holding your employer accountable and seeking a remedy.
Source:
dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/FairLaborStandAct.pdf
