Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) employers must compensate employees for all hours worked. Hours worked generally include the time an employee must be on duty, on the employer's premises or at a prescribed place of work. Time spent training for a position is considered hours worked and generally needs to be paid whether conducted online or in person. There are few exceptions to this rule.
Training time is not required to be compensated if four conditions are met:- it is voluntary,
- outside of regular work hours,
- not job-related, and
- no productive work is concurrently performed during the training
All hours worked, including training time, must count towards the 40-hour threshold for calculating overtime pay. Employers who fail to accurately compensate employees for hours worked can find themselves in legal trouble. Have questions on FLSA and compensation practices? Bukaty Companies' HR Consulting & Training team has the expertise you need to keep your business compliant.
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