How to Make Sense out of Reporting Time Pay

Reporting time pay is not a very complicated matter, but can be if you don’t do things correctly. Heres a quick breakdown of how to handle hours worked, when employees are asked to leave work before their scheduled shift.

What is reporting time? When an employee reports to the place of employment for a work, to for a meeting or even a termination, they are owed money for reporting in.  Simple, straight forward.

The requirement : Employees who report to work and sent home early (for any reason) are entitled to reporting time pay equal to half of their usual or scheduled day’s shift, with a minimum of two hours and a maximum of four hours required.

Scheduled day and sent home early or terminated

If an employee is scheduled to work on a given day and reports to work but is terminated, suspended or sent home at the beginning (or before the mid-point) of the shift, he/she is owed reporting time pay equal to half of the usual or scheduled day’s pay.

For example:  if the employee was terminated 1 hour into the shift and was scheduled for a three-hour shift, she would get the minimum two hours pay, and if she was scheduled for a 10-hour shift she would get the maximum four hours pay.

Day not scheduled to work – comes in to be terminated

If an employee is not scheduled to work on a given day but is asked to come in for a meeting (even for a termination), the reporting time pay requirements are different than for those on a scheduled day of work.

The court clarified that because the employee does not report to work with the expectation of working a scheduled shift, but rather is scheduled to attend a meeting for an unspecified number of hours, the employee is owed only two hours pay based on the minimum reporting time pay requirement.

So, when an employee who has been suspended and taken off the schedule and is then asked to come in for a meeting rather than for a normal day’s work is owed two hours pay.  IF the employee believes that he/she is working that day and is scheduled – you will have to pay ½ the shift.

My advice:  when in doubt, pay it out!