Whattime is an employee legally supposed to be paid for?
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Whattime is an employee legally supposed to be paid for?
I work through a “temp” company for a factory. Our 2nd shift hours are from 3:20 pm to 10:40 pm, which is 7 hours and 20 minutes. At 5:30 pm we get a 10 minute break and at 8:00 pm we get a 20 minute break (which we don’t clock out for). Sometimes they want us to work past our scheduled ending time of 10:40 until the night shift comes on in order to keep production going. This can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes before being compensated. I’m not sure how these small breaks fit into this, nor how they are doing their figuring, but we only get paid for 7 hours.
Asked on August 17, 2011 Tennessee
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
You need to be paid for all hours worked, regardless of your actual shift. The employer is entitled to not pay you for breaks of more than a few minutes--so they could definitely not pay you for the 20 minute break; the 10 minute break they might have to keep paying you for--so long as you are "off the clock" for it. They definitely need to pay you for any time, even 5 - 15 minutes, worked past shift end. From what you write, it sounds like they are ok in regards to your basic shift and breaks--the shift is 7 hours and 20 minutes; they pay you for 7 hours, which means they are paying you for the 10 minute break but not for the 20 minute break. The only issue seems to be that they should pay you for the post- or after-shift time.
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