It's Only Human

As good as we know MyTimeCards is, neither it nor any automated timekeeper can make your company totally compliant with federal and state wage and hour laws. Compliance takes more than accurate employee tracking. It takes people, more specifically it takes supervisors. There are assurances of compliance that only direct supervision can give:

• that employees are actually taking the breaks automatically deducted by the automated system


• that employees are not working before they are clocked in or after they are clocked out


• that employees are correctly classified as exempt or non-exempt from FLSA regulations


• that non-exempt employees with tip work are not spending more than 20% of their time doing non-tip tasks


• that employed minors are not doing prohibited activities...and more

Automated timekeeping brings many benefits to employers - significant savings in staff time, reduced costs, elimination of errors, but it cannot completely replace humans. Employers who rely solely on automation do so at their own peril. For a real-world case-in-point, take a look at the Applebee's Story.

Compliance Made Easy-er

The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which primarily governs overtime laws, minimum wage laws, and child labor laws; however, by far the most frequently found violations the WHD discover are those involving overtime pay. By law, any employee is eligible for overtime pay, at time and a half, unless they are earn at least $455 a week, are paid on a salary basis, and meet at least one of the predefined exemption rules (see link below for summary guidelines. Visit the Department of Labor or consult a labor attorney for complete regulations). If a violation is uncovered, the company will be required to correct the pay for all current and former employees affected by the violation, and pay possible fines, damages, and legal costs. It could wind up costing millions.

The first step in making sure your company is in total compliance with FLSA regulations is to determine that all employees are properly classified as either exempt or non-exempt from FLSA overtime laws. Non-exempt employees must be paid time and a half their rate of pay for any hours worked over 40 per week. Try this:

Put all your employees to the test. Exempt or Non-Exempt?

Once your employees are correctly classified, it is imperitive that your payroll procedures accurately reflect any and all non-exempt compensation that is due. A correct employee record in an automated system such as MyTimeCards is a foolproof way to monitor employee type and hour type and calculate hours worked.

Staying on the Government's (and your employees') Good Side

Did you hear the one about the employer who had to pay out millions in back wages and fines because the company timeclock was wrong? Not funny, and not a punchline any boss would want to be. An employer's total compliance with FLSA regulations is more important than ever before. And don't forget, individual states have their own compliance standards you must follow as well.

The number of wage and hour class actions, and the payouts employers have had to make, have risen sharply. The number of cases filed in U.S. federal courts more than doubled from 2001 to 2006. How do you protect yourself from wage and hour disputes, and ensure your employees are treated fairly?

Total compliance requires careful attention to detail. In their whitepaper, "Total Wage and Hour Compliance: An Initiative to End the Wage and Hour Class Action War", labor law experts Littler Mendelson, P.C., name automated timekeeping as a key component in minimizing an employer's exposure to wage and hour litigation.

Automated timekeeping provides clear, accurate and instantly accessible records of hours worked by each employee, and many systems go much further, storing all the wage and hour records the DOL requires that you keep. Be ahead of the government auditors. These resources will help:

Have Just What They're Looking For Records You Are Required to Keep by the U.S Department of Labor

Preparing for the Wage Hour Audit A Basic To Do List

MyTimeCards.com's Employee Record stores essential info required by the U.S. Department of Labor. This, along with the virtual timecards which are stored and easily retrieved by MyTimeCards.com, helps you prepare for audits, internal and otherwise.