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Employee Hours

Track employee hours for payroll and compliance

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12 min read

After-Hours Texts and Calls Count as Paid Time: An FLSA Overtime Guide for Small Employers

Under the FLSA's suffered-or-permitted standard (29 CFR 785.11), a nonexempt employee's four-minute reply to a 9 p.m. text is compensable work if you knew or had reason to know it happened, and the de minimis rule in 29 CFR 785.47 rarely covers timestamped, recurring message time. This guide covers exempt-vs-nonexempt classification at the $684-per-week salary floor, the four timekeeping setups that manufacture violations, the two-to-three-year lookback with doubled liquidated damages, and a five-habit compliance playbook for small employers.

Mike Thrift

payrollcomplianceemployee-hours
9 min read

Do You Owe Wages for the Hours Your Employee Spent Sleeping? FLSA Sleep-Time Rules for 24-Hour Shifts and Live-In Workers

Federal law lets employers exclude up to eight hours of sleep time from a shift of 24 hours or more — never from a shorter one — and only with adequate sleeping quarters, usually uninterrupted sleep, and an agreement. Every interruption is paid, and fewer than five consecutive hours of sleep makes the entire window compensable.

Mike Thrift

payrollcomplianceemployee-hours
9 min read

Daylight Saving Time Ends November 1: Why Your Overnight Shift Is Nine Hours, Not Eight

When clocks fall back at 2:00 a.m. on November 1, 2026, a scheduled eight-hour overnight shift becomes nine paid hours under the FLSA — and that ninth hour counts toward the 40-hour overtime threshold. Spring forward is not the mirror image: the hour never worked may be paid voluntarily but is excluded from the regular rate and cannot offset real overtime.

Mike Thrift

payrollcomplianceemployee-hours
13 min read

On-Call Pay Under the FLSA: When Your Standby Hours Count as Paid Work Time

Under the FLSA, on-call hours are paid when employer restrictions keep an employee from using the time freely — the "engaged to wait" test. This guide covers the control factors investigators weigh, sleep-time rules for 24-hour shifts, how flat on-call stipends raise the overtime regular rate, and state rules like California reporting-time pay and city predictive-scheduling ordinances.

Mike Thrift

payrollcompliancesmall-business
10 min read

When Does a Commute Become Paid Time? DOL Opinion Letter FLSA2026-10 and Your Field Payroll

DOL Opinion Letter FLSA2026-10 (July 22, 2026) holds that a field engineer's morning calls to schedule customer appointments are integral and indispensable work, which starts the continuous workday and makes the drive to the first job site compensable. Passively receiving dispatch messages is not. Here is how to classify each step of the morning routine, fix mobile timekeeping, and book the reclassified hours.

Mike Thrift

payrollemployee-hourscompliance
9 min read

The Long-Term Part-Time Employee Rule: Why Your 401(k) Eligibility Tracking Needs an Update Right Now

Under SECURE 2.0, any employee who works 500+ hours in two consecutive 12-month periods and is 21 or older must be allowed to defer into your 401(k) — even if your plan requires 1,000 hours. Here's what the IRS's final LTPT regulations require, who qualifies, and the rolling two-year hours-tracking system small businesses need to avoid missed-deferral corrections.

Mike Thrift

retirement-plansemployee-benefitspayroll
8 min read

DOL Opinion Letter FLSA2026-7: Security Checkpoint Time During Unpaid Meal Breaks Isn't Compensable

In May 2026, the DOL's Wage and Hour Division ruled in Opinion Letter FLSA2026-7 that time employees voluntarily spend passing through a security checkpoint to leave the premises during a 30-minute unpaid meal break is not compensable under the FLSA. Here's what the ruling covers, what it doesn't change under state law, and five compliance steps for employers with secured facilities.

Mike Thrift

payrollcompliancesmall-business
5 min read

Is Unpaid 'Gap Time' Legal? The Third Circuit's FLSA Ruling and What It Means for Small-Business Payroll

On June 3, 2026, the Third Circuit ruled in Secretary of Labor v. Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services that the FLSA provides no federal remedy for "overtime gap time" — hours worked but paid at neither straight time nor the overtime premium — aligning with the Second Circuit and deepening a split with the Fourth. Here's what gap time is, why state wage laws still create exposure, and five payroll checks every small employer with hourly staff should run.

Mike Thrift

payrollcompliancesmall-business
9 min read

DOL Opinion Letter FLSA2026-3: Why Mandatory Roll Call Counts as Hours Worked — and How Section 7(b) Changes the Overtime Math

In January 2026, the DOL's Wage and Hour Division ruled in Opinion Letter FLSA2026-3 that a mandatory 15-minute pre-shift roll call under a collective bargaining agreement is compensable hours worked — but a properly structured FLSA Section 7(b)(1) or 7(b)(2) exemption can absorb that time at straight-time pay instead of an overtime premium. Here's how the thresholds work and what the math looks like for a 20-person dispatch center.

Mike Thrift

payrollcomplianceemployee-hours
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