September 30, 2019

Do you have a practice in your company of tracking time in 15 minutes increments and then either rounding up or down depending on the exact amount of time the employee works? Did you know, that if you always round down, you could be violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? The rules of the FLSA state that an employer may round down employee time from 1 to 7 minutes, but must round up employee time from 8 to 14 minutes. So if an employee clocks in 9 minutes early, that time must be rounded up to the nearest quarter of an hour. If the employee clocks in 7 minutes early, then you can round that time down. However, be sure that you are not always rounding down and that you take into account if an employee clocks out, for example, 9 minutes late and compensate that time. The rules surrounding wage and hour laws can be complex and require precision. If you have questions about your rounding policies, contact one of our experienced attorneys at myHRcounsel for assistance.