Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other?

Common Industry Problems

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.


The most common violation in the nursing care industry is the failure of employers to pay for all the hours worked. This uncompensated time most frequently occurs when employers fail to pay for work performed:

• Before and after a worker's scheduled shift;

• During an employee's scheduled meal period; and

• While employees are attending staff meetings and compensable training sessions.

Minimum wage and overtime pay violations also occur when employers make deductions or demand reimbursement for the cost of required uniforms or equipment.


Individuals not otherwise employed by the facility who volunteer – without expectation of pay – to attend to the comfort of nursing home residents in a manner not otherwise provided by the facility are not considered employees under the FLSA. However, individuals (including residents) who perform work of any consequential economic benefit to the facility are employees and entitled to FLSA minimum wage and overtime.


Overtime pay violations often occur when employers:

• Fail to pay overtime after 8 hours of work in a day for workers (both full time and part time) who are under the "8 and 80" system.

• Pay overtime after 80 hours worked during a biweekly period rather than after 40 hours in a workweek to employees not under the "8 and 80" system.

• Fail to combine hours worked in more than one department or at more than one facility when determining the total overtime hours worked.

• Fail to include in calculating overtime hours the time spent or hours worked while performing on-call assignments.

• Fail to include shift differential, bonuses or on-call fees in calculating an employee's regular rate.

• Fail to pay overtime to non-exempt, salaried employees (e.g., clerical staff, cooks, and activities directors).

An employer can use the standard system of overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek for some employees and the “8 and 80” exception for others at the same workplace, but cannot use both systems for a single individual employee.

I've even been asked to clock out while running labs to another hospital. Didn't clock out and never got paid for it.

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.

Read the above links. The hospital was wrong to ask you to work off the clock and you were entitled to be paid.

I knew they were wrong. They had paid me before for running errands but not this time. I threw laws at them but got no response. Even though I know a law was broken I'm just sooo tired of fighting with them. It only took me ~40 mins to make the roundtrip so I dropped it. I guess they caught me on one of my nice days.

I no longer make those trips for them.