My eployer rounds my time-clock minutes down....Is this legal?

Question

I lose 10 minutes of work-time per day. That's an hour per week that I'm forced to work for free. Why can my employer make me punch a time clock and then not pay me for all my time worked?

When I clock in 5 minutes early, that extra time is disregarded. When I clock out 5 minutes late, the extra time ignored.

Answer 1

It is legal to do this; in fact, many timekeeping systems have a function that rounds the time to the employee's exact start time, or applies a "grace period" of, say, two minutes to give the employee time to walk from the clock to their work station.

As far as late clock-outs go, again, if you're within a 5-minute window, it's legal to round it down (in fact, some companies round to the nearest quarter-hour, so it could be worse.) If you are consistently putting in OT, however, and that work is disregarded, then you do have a legally-justifiable complaint.

Answer 2

i don't know if it is legal or not. If you have a problem with it, you can sit by the clock every morning and not time in until your are supposed to start. Then set when it is time to quit you drop everything you are doing and clock out. Your boss would get the message.

Your other option, is to clock in 15 minutes early and stay 15 minutes latter. You may not get paid extra, but you will get noticed, and you may get a promotion.

Answer 3

If you are "asked" to clock in to work early or "asked" to clock out late because of working, your employer is not legally able to disregard that time. If he does and that is the case, I suggest contacting a lawyer, you also need to read the companies handbook to see if there are any issues that cover a situation like this. Be warned though, once you hire a lawyer you might lose your job, so if you don't mind looking for another job, I suggest contacting a lawyer. If you don't want to lose your job, I suggest not clocking in until you are supposed to clock in and leave when you are supposed to leave.

Answer 4

Yes-your employer can do that. The extra time was not pre-authorized by them. You cannot come in early and get paid without permission, nor stay late and expect overtime without permission. You don't set your own hours-they do.

Now they DO have a policy, which will cut off this time to a specific minute. I once worked at a place that considered 7 minutes to be the cutoff. So if you were to stay 8 minutes late, they would consider that overtime, but it would have to be approved by your supervisor in writing. And if you had not had it pre-approved you would be chewed out.

Ask your human resources department what the cut-off time is.

Answer 5

Your time is sometimes in increments. If you punch in early, don't start working and don't hang around the time clock. WalMart got nailed to the cross for not paying overtime to cashiers counting their money. Now they pay you for every minute on the time clock but it should vary State by State..

Answer 6

Im sorry but I dont understand your situation. Does that mean he makes you work an extra 10 mins but does not pay you for it ? If you worked 50 mins and short 10 mins of an hour, you are losing more than just an hour a week.

Answer 7

seems like you're trying to sneak an extra hour on your check by doing the 5 min. early and late routine. being clocked in doesn't mean you get paid for every minute of it, it just verifies that you were there for your SCHEDULED shift.

Answer 8

Don't clock in early, don't clock out late, and don't work off the clock.

Answer 9

That's NOT legal!! REPORT him!

Answer 10

it shouldnt be