After the Covid lockdown, many employees transitioned to remote or hybrid work. While this new work setting has been beneficial to many, it has also brought new complications, including complications related to compensation.
The standard rule for overtime compensation is that a non-exempt employee must work more than 40 hours a week to be eligible for overtime compensation. Under most scenarios, such an employee is entitled to time-and-a-half of their hourly rate for the hours worked over 40 in a work week.
Tracking hours worked remotely can be difficult, especially if an employer fails to implement policies and practices to track all of the time worked by employees. For example, answering phone calls or responding to messages on days off or before or after work hours has become the norm. Although employees may feel like such duties are simply expected by employers, such tasks count as work for which employees should be compensated. And, if that extra time spent answering calls or responding to texts puts an employee over 40 hours for that work week, then the employee is entitled to be paid time-and-a-half for those hours worked over 40.
The desire to meet employers’ expectations can make it difficult for employees to differentiate between work time (which is compensable) and their own leisure time (which is not). When the line between work time and leisure time is blurred it can foster an “always-on” culture. “Always-on” manifests in a variety of ways, including constantly checking and responding to emails (even during dinner or other non-working time), responding to messages and calls when not working, and even joining Zoom calls while on vacation. Because employees can feel that they are “always-on,” these activities often results in unpaid overtime hours. However, employers must pay for all hours worked, regardless of when or where, and this is particularly true for employers which presume that employees are available at all times.
In order to ensure that they are paid for all of their hours worked in this “always-on” culture, it is helpful for employees working remotely to keep track of all of the time they work, including time associated with tasks performed while they are off-the-clock. Importantly, even if employees do not log or track their own time and the employer does not provide the means for capturing all hours worked – including hours worked remotely — the law permits such employees to rely on their best estimate of their actual, total hours worked.
In these uncertain economic times, workers have witnessed wild gyrations in their 401k accounts. A downturn in your 401k may be the result of the overall stock market decline, but something else also may be at play.