The rules on worker’s pay are located in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA states that hourly workers must receive at least minimum wage per hour and at least time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week. The FLSA also requires non-exempt salaried employees to receive their salary plus additional pay for all overtime hours each week. To determine how much an employee should be paid, you need to know how many hours an employee worked each week and this can become tricky.
In order to determine the number of hours an employee worked, the Department of Labor (DOL) says that the “workweek ordinarily includes all time during which an employee is necessarily required to be on the employer’s premises, on duty or at a prescribed work place.”
Does this mean an employer has to pay for training time? The DOL also says that an employer must pay for training time unless the employer can prove that the training program was outside regular hours, voluntary, not job related, and no other worked is performed at the same time. Therefore, if your employer requires you to attend training especially if it is specific for your job, your employer must pay you for the time spent in training and if the training time bumps you to overtime hours, you must be paid overtime.