How does the FLSA define working time?

The FLSA does not limit the number of hours an employee may work, either daily or weekly. The law only requires that employees be compensated for all hours worked. State laws may place limits on working time and impose rest periods. Be sure to consult the laws in the state where you have employees.

Hours worked is the time for which an employee is entitled to compensation under the FLSA. Compensation is required for the time an employee is required to be on duty, on the employer's premises, or at a prescribed workplace, and for the time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not the employee is requested to do so. Thus, hours worked can include time spent in idleness and in incidental activities, as well as in productive labor.

The United States Supreme Court, in IBP Inc v Alvarez,(SCt 2005), 151 LC ¶35,056, ruled that the time that employees spend walking to their production area after donning required work gear is compensable. The time spent waiting to doff the protective work gear is also compensable. However, the time spent waiting to don the first piece of gear prior to the start of the workday is not compenable.

Time spent in changing clothes and washing before starting or after finishing work can be excluded from hours worked, even though otherwise compensable, if it is excluded from measured working time under a union contract.

Recording the time worked. The FLSA requires employers to keep accurate records of hours worked by employees performing interstate activities, but it imposes no duty to use time clocks or time cards as the means for doing so. However, if an employer does use a time clock, early or late punching by employees who voluntarily come in early or remain late may be ignored if employees do not work before or after their regular hours.

Lunchtime punching out. Permitting employees to forego punching time clocks during their lunch periods does not require that the lunch periods be counted as hours worked if the employees are relieved of all duties, if the lunch periods occur at a regularly appointed time, and if the periods are not paid for and counted as hours worked under employment contracts.

Fractional hours. Employees must be paid for all time worked, including fractional parts of an hour. Arbitrary formulas or estimates may not be used as substitutes for a precise determination of compensable working time that is a part of fixed or regular hours or which can be practicably ascertained.

There is one exception to this rule. A practice of recording employees' starting and stopping time to the nearest five minutes, the nearest tenth of an hour or the nearest quarter of an hour will be accepted if it is shown that, over a period of time, the averages result in the employees getting paid for all the time they actually work.

De minimis doctrine. As to time which cannot be practically ascertained-uncertain and indefinite working periods beyond scheduled working hours-a few seconds or minutes may be disregarded under the de minimis doctrine. Under this doctrine, a few minutes' time spent by employees on plant premises for their own convenience before or after their workday need not be included in hours worked.

Absences. Employee absences due to illnesses, holidays, vacations, time off to vote, or other similar causes can be ignored in figuring hours worked under the FLSA, even if the employee is paid for the absences. Omission of absences from hours worked is optional under federal law. There is no objection to private agreements that require that absences be treated as compensable working time or as part of the straight-time hours for overtime pay purposes.

Exempt or noncovered work in week. Where a nonexempt employee is engaged in both a covered and a noncovered capacity (i.e., interstate and local work) under the FLSA, working time cannot be segregated during a workweek-the employee is entitled to the statutory benefits with respect to all of the hours worked during the workweek. The same is true generally where an employee is engaged in both a covered and an exempt capacity during a particular workweek. However, occasional, isolated instances of coverage will not confer the benefits of the FLSA upon an employee.