Employers for their hourly employees need to be
very careful because technology today enables even hourly employees to potentially be interrupted when they’re
off work or to do work while they’re off work. Whether it’s answering a phone call from the supervisor, whether it’s responding to an email after they’ve
gone home, these are all problems because that time, although they’re off the clock, remains compensible, meaning
the employer is obligated to pay them for it. And if the employer does not have a great practice for making those
employees record that additional time that they worked when they were supposed to be off duty, the employer opens
itself up to claims by those employees that they were not paid all their wages,
triggering a series of penalties that can add up quickly and expose employers to either Paga or class action lawsuits.
and exposure.