Working of a clock

Whether it's an ambitious employee staying late to finish a project or a worker required to come in early to help set up a worksite, "off the clock" work, work that is unpaid or doesn't count toward overtime, is often illegal. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which applies to most workers, requires that employees be paid overtime when working beyond 40 hours a week for all work done for their employers.

The Fair Labor Standards Act

Most employees are covered by the FLSA, which establishes minimum wage, overtime, and other protections for workers. Employees who are exempt from the FLSA's requirements are typically executive, administrative, or professional employees or workers in certain industries such as commission-based sales and farmwork. Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked.

What Does It Mean to Work 'Off the Clock?'

Work that is off the clock is any work done for an employer which isn't compensated and not counted towards a worker's weekly hours for overtime purposes. Federal law defines "employ" to include "suffer or permit to work." This means that if an employer requires or allows employees to work, that time generally requires compensation. An employer may still be required to pay a worker whose work is "suffered". Suffered work means the employee engages in work that isn't requested, but allowed, such as working extra, unpaid hours in order to help colleagues.

Common Types of Off the Clock Work

Off the clock work can take a variety of forms and can even include work done offsite. Common examples of off the clock work include allowing or requiring:

• Unpaid preparation, such as setting up a restaurant before a shift, loading or warming up trucks, transferring equipment or preparing a worksite
• Unpaid post-shift work, including clean up, finishing tasks that "should have" been completed during the shift, or returning to another site to drop off equipment
• Unpaid 'administrative' work, like completing paperwork, meeting with management, reviewing patient charts or undergoing training done on an employee's own time
• Unpaid rework, such as when an employee is asked to redo a project or correct errors without pay
• Waiting for work when none is immediately available Time between assignments or time in which the employee is required or allowed to wait for a task count as work which must be paid.