Do You Know How to Pay Employees For Daylight Savings Time Work?

By Eric B. Meyer

This Sunday, Daylight Savings Time begins, as we push the clocks forward one hour at 2:00 am on March 10, 2013.

Did someone say Clocks?

How does the time change affect the manner in which you pay hourly non-exempt employees who work the graveyard shift? I’ll let the U.S. Department of Labor explain:

On the Sunday that Daylight Savings Time starts at 2:00 a.m., the employee does not work the hour from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. because at 2:00 a.m. all of the clocks are turned forward to 3:00 a.m. Thus, on this day the employee only worked 7 hours, even though the schedule was for 8 hours.

The FLSA requires that employees must be credited with all of the hours actually worked. Therefore, if the employee is in a work situation similar to that described in the above example, he or she worked 7 hours on the day that Daylight Savings Time begins. …”

Of course, when we get to November and set the clocks back, remember that employees working the graveyard shift must be paid an extra hour.

But, until then, enjoy the sun.

This was originally published on Eric B. Meyer’s blog, The Employer Handbook.

Eric B. Meyer is a partner in the Labor and Employment Group of the Philadelphia-based law firm of Dilworth Paxson LLP . He dedicates his practice to litigating and assisting employers on labor and employment issues affecting the workplace, including collective bargaining, discrimination, employee handbook policies, enforcement of restrictive covenants, and trade secret protection. Eric also serves as a volunteer mediator for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Contact him at emeyer@dilworthlaw.com .

Urbane_Gorilla

I would happily strangle Ben Franklin for coming up with this stupid idea….Not to mention Congress that in a single bill managed to destroy all the clocks in the US that used to “automatically set daylight savings time”, thereby saving people from being late to work or missing flights on those two days that change and now have to be manually reset 4 times a year! WTF!
Rory Trotter

Thanks for sharing this, Eric. I actually had no idea that there was an FLSA regulation on this. Somewhere, someone is reading this post and thanking there stars you shared.

Good read.

Best,

Rory