Are You Owed Reporting Time Pay?

It often happens that you show up for work, and there is simply little or nothing for you to do. Whether because of overscheduling, or a slow day, depending on your job, you could end up being sent straight back home by your employer.

But you took the time and effort to show up for work. You may have passed up other income earning possibilities, to go to work. Is it fair that an employer can say come in, and then tell you to go home, through no fault of your own–and then not pay you? Turns out, it’s unfair, and you deserve to be paid.

Reporting Time Pay Requirements

It’s called reporting time pay, and laws that recognize this kind of pay are meant to compensate the employee for the time spent in showing up to work, essentially for nothing (this is assuming that being sent home early is not the employee’s fault).

Reporting time pay is required for employees when they are sent home without working, but it is also required when the employee actually does work, but is sent home before half of his or her shift has been worked. The law also applies when workers are called in specifically for a work shift, and the shift is less than half of what a regular or normal time shift would be.

The law also applies to special meetings or trainings which the employee may have to attend, which are shorter than the normal working shift.

It even applies to a split shift—that is, when an employee works two shifts in a day, with an unpaid break between shifts that lasts more than an hour.

It doesn’t matter why your shift was cut short or even canceled. The employer must provide your reporting time pay.

How Much Does an Employee Get?

Reporting time pay must be paid at your regular pay rate, for a minimum of 2 hours worth of work, no matter how long you actually work. There is a four hour maximum pay limit for reporting time pay.

The pay is your regular pay-not your base pay, which is often lower. Regular pay means inclusion of things like bonuses, or commissions, or other payments that may be part of the job.

Workers can get both their regular pay, and reporting time pay. So, for example, an employee sent home after only one hour, would get paid for that hour, but could also get reporting time pay for the part of his or her shift that was cut short, when the employee was sent home early.

Exemptions and Exceptions

Reporting time pay only applies to what are known as non-exempt employees—that is, if an employee is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the employer does not have to provide reporting time pay.

It also only applies when the cause of being sent home is in the employer’s control. Being sent home early because of emergencies, or unexpected closures, or building floods, or electrical outages, will not require payment of reporting pay.

Does your employer owe you money? Why not ask a wage and hour attorney? Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today.

Sources:

employers.org/blog/2024/05/30/default/tricky-reporting-time-pay-rules/

dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_reportingtimepay.htm