Employees paid on an hourly basis have certain legal protections. They generally have the right to receive pay for all of the time that they are on the clock. They may also be eligible for overtime pay in certain scenarios.
Most employers now use digital timekeeping systems that allow for absolute precision when calculating wages and issuing paychecks. However, some companies pay workers by rounding their time worked and calculating wages based on increments bigger than individual minutes.
Is that practice currently legal in Hawaii?
Neutral rounding is a lawful practice
Perhaps a company has yet to digitize its payroll, making highly accurate wage calculations a time-consuming challenge. Even if the company has digital timekeeping software, federal and state employment laws allow for rounding when calculating time worked.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers can calculate time worked in increments of up to 15 minutes. If an employee puts in six minutes, the company can round down and refuse to pay them for that time. If they work 10 minutes, they may receive wages for 15 minutes of their time.
Such practices are legal as long as the company is consistent and neutral about rounding practices. If the company only rounds when it can eliminate pay, then that could constitute a wage and hour violation.
Employees who believe that employers may have violated their rights could have grounds to take legal action. Reviewing a wage and hour issue at length can help employees determine if they may have a reason to take legal action and seek unpaid wages for time they have already worked.