Training count as hours worked?
I am an hourly factory employee. My employer is forcing me to go school for further traiing on my days off or after normal work hours. I have 2 questions. 1.Do they have to pay my hourly rate for the schooling, transprortaion, and required at home study time? 2.Can they make me pay for the required schooling?
1 answer | asked Mar 5, 2007 4:15 PM [EST] | applies to Ohio
Answers (1)
Training time is compensable unless voluntary and not related to your job
Training time counts as hours worked for federal minimum wage and overtime purposes unless the training time is voluntary and on the employee's own time and the training is not related to the employee's job. In your case, it sounds like your training time should be hours worked.
Your employer does not necessarily have to pay you your full wage for training time. The employer must pay the minimum wage for all hours worked in a week. If your base wage is high enough, your employer might comply with the minimum wage law if your total pay for a week divided by all hours worked for the week (including training hours) was equal to or greater than the minimum wage.
Your employer probably can require you to pay for required schooling in much the same way that an employer can require an accounting applicant to have an accounting degree (which the applicant obtained at her own expense). If the employer requires you to use your time to get the training, though, it should, in your case, treat those hours as hours worked.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Mar 6, 2007 4:21 PM [EST]
Training time counts as hours worked for federal minimum wage and overtime purposes unless the training time is voluntary and on the employee's own time and the training is not related to the employee's job. In your case, it sounds like your training time should be hours worked.
Your employer does not necessarily have to pay you your full wage for training time. The employer must pay the minimum wage for all hours worked in a week. If your base wage is high enough, your employer might comply with the minimum wage law if your total pay for a week divided by all hours worked for the week (including training hours) was equal to or greater than the minimum wage.
Your employer probably can require you to pay for required schooling in much the same way that an employer can require an accounting applicant to have an accounting degree (which the applicant obtained at her own expense). If the employer requires you to use your time to get the training, though, it should, in your case, treat those hours as hours worked.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Mar 6, 2007 4:21 PM [EST]
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