Wage and hour compliance should always be at the forefront of every HR Department's agenda. One small mistake can easily be compounded into significant, often uninsured, liability via a collective action. To test your knowledge in this important area we developed a short quiz on some often-overlooked issues.
TRUE OR FALSE:
1. When a non-exempt hourly employee is required to travel for business it is legally necessary to pay the employee for any time spent on airplanes or trains.
2. When a non-exempt hourly employee is required to travel around a city as part of their duties during the workday, it is important that they be paid as soon as they leave their home regardless of whether or not they stop at the office to pick up supplies and tools.
3. All time spent in training prior to starting a job must be compensated as hour worked.
4. Piece rate bonuses or incentives based on quantity of goods produced need not be figured into computation of overtime so long as these vary from week to week.
5. Federal wage and hour law requires that hours credited and paid for legal holidays be counted in determining whether a non-exempt employee has worked 40 hours in a pay period for purposes of overtime.
6. If an individual owns two businesses and employs some of the same people in both businesses, the hours need not be aggregated for computing overtime if the businesses are separately incorporated.
7. Time spent commuting to and from work is generally not counted as "hours worked."
8. An employer can pay an employee on an hourly basis and still qualify that employee a professional exempt from overtime.
9. It is not necessary to provide unpaid breaks or lunch periods to employees in Wisconsin so long as you are consistent in this policy.
10. It is not necessary to provide unpaid breaks or lunch periods to employees in Illinois so long as you are consistent in this policy.
Check next week's Monday Morning Minute for the answers and a bit of commentary on each question Have a great week!
