If my employer is not paying me for an hour of work during the time change. is that legal?

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If my employer is not paying me for an hour of work during the time change. is that legal?

We work 24 hour shifts and during the time change we worked that extra hour, so we were on the clock for 25 hours. But we only got paid for 24. The reasoning was that we don’t get docked for the hour less we work during the time change in spring. However, it isn’t necessarily the same people working those shifts. So someone may get paid extra, and another one is working an hour for free.

Asked on November 15, 2010 under Employment Labor Law, Oregon

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 13 years ago | Contributor

While your employer may have honorable intentions and may not be intending to take advantage of anyone or cheat people of pay, the problem is, they're wrong. Under the labor laws, such as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), nonexempt employees (anyone eligible for  overtime; includes essentially all hourly workers) must be paid for all hours actually worked. There are no exceptions and no "offsets" allowed; the proper responses, if the employer is concerned about overpaying, would be to pay people an hour less during spring ahead. In the meantime though, they have to pay everyone for fall back for the number of hours actually spent working, regardless of what time the clocks say.


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