state whether or not each situation would be considered compensable time (and why or why not)

Compensable Time Exercise 1) An employee of a fast food chain has to arrive at work 15 minutes early to change into the mascot costume and it typically takes another 15 minutes at the end of the shift to change out of the costume and properly store it. Due to the cost of the costume, employees are not allowed to take the costume home. The mascots typically work from 10am 2pm, to cover the lunch rush periods. How much time would be compensable for the mascots, assuming the conditions/schedule listed above? 2) George is a Radiology Technician at a local hospital and when on call, is required to be no further than 30 minutes away from the facility. Is the on call time, compensable? 3) Alice works as an Order Processor at a local retail store. She is an hourly employee and her start time is 8am, however she likes to arrive at least 20 minutes early to organize her desk, check emails and answer any voice mails that came in after her shift ended the day before. What time would her compensable time begin? 4) Tricia is an Administrative Assistant and her job requires her to travel from one location to another during the course of her normal workday. She uses her own car and is reimbursed for mileage. She spends approximately 1 hour per week traveling. Tricia lives only 2 miles from her primary location - A, but lives 10 miles from the furthest location - B. Is her travel time compensable when she is traveling from either Location A or Location B? 5) Ron and Tim both work as landscapers during the summer months. Due to the heat, the scheduled start time is 7am. Typically though, the crew leader is late and most days they do not actually start work until 7:30 or 8am. Ron likes to catch a quick nap while he waits, however Tim usually will pick up a broom or clean to pass the time. What time would his compensable time begin for Ron and Tim (assume that 7:45 is the average start time)? 6) Jane is a Senior Help Desk Technician that is considered a non-exempt employee. Her normal work hours are Monday-Friday from 8am 5pm. Because she is the primary escalation person for her company, she is required to carry a company cell phone with her until 10pm, Monday Friday when she is not at work. Escalated calls occur on an ad-hoc basis and she does not have any additional restrictions, she simply needs to answer the calls if they come in. Is this on-call time, compensable? John is a Training Specialist for a retail operation in Omaha, NE. His normal hours are 8am 5pm Monday-Friday with an hour for lunch. Due to a system upgrade, John has had to travel to multiple locations to train staff on the upgrades. The following travel occurred within a pay period: 7) Fort Worth, TX by airplane - John left on a Monday morning at 8am and returned on Tuesday at noon and did not return to work that day. John recorded the following hours for his timecard: Monday = 16 hours (8am midnight) and Tuesday = 12 hours (midnight 12pm). 8) Kansas City, MO by car John left on Wednesday morning at 8am, arrived in KC by 11am, conducted the training and left KC by 5pm. John arrived back in Omaha at 8pm. John recorded the following hours on his timecard: Wednesday = 12 hours (8am 8pm) His supervisor questioned John about this, John replied that because he was traveling for work, he was on the clock and therefore should be paid for it. For both #7 and #8, how many compensable hours does John actually have? Toby works as Call Center Representative. He works from 7am 4:30am, Monday Friday with 30 minutes for lunch. He also typically takes several mini-breaks during the day to smoke. These breaks typically range from 5-10 minutes in length and he would typically take at least, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Toby prefers to eat his lunch at his desk, however he also tends to answer questions from his manager and even his co-workers throughout his lunch, because he is the senior representative on that team. This occurred for at least a year. Toby recently was let go because due to a downsizing in the department. Toby called his former manager, Kelly and stated that he was owed 30 minutes of pay for the past year because technically he was doing work while eating. Kelly stated that this was not correct, he was on a lunch break and answering questions was completely voluntary. She went on to state that even if he was working during lunch, she never charged him for his breaks, so if he wanted to make an issue out of the lunch breaks, she would bring up the smoke breaks and then he might owe the company money. 9) Does Toby have a legitimate compensable time claim? Why or why not? 10) Does Kelly have a legitimate counter compensable time claim? Why or why not?

1. This is compensable time because the employee is required to arrive 15mins early in order to prepare for the work by putting on the mascot costume and is required to remove the costume at the end of each shift before leaving. 4 hours and 30 minutes would be compensable for the mascot on a shift from 10a-2p.

2. George's "on call" time is compensable because he is required to be no further than 30 minutes away from the facility limiting his free time. "when an on-call employee is required to stay at the workplace or is so near the workplace that he or she cannot use his or her time freely, the employee is engaged to wait (on duty). In such cases, the employee must be compensated for this time" (SHRM, 2022).

3. Alice's compensable time would begin at 7:40a because although she is coming in 20 minutes by choice she is still engaging in work duties.

4. Tricia should be compensated for her travel to and from Location B, but her travel from Location A is not compensable because "An employee who travels from home before the regular workday and returns to his/her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home to work travel, which is not work time" (DOL, 2023)

5. Both Tim and Ron's compensable start time would be 7am. Even though Ron takes a quick nap while he waits for the crew leader, he is engaged to wait for the work to begin therefore making that time compensable.

6. Jane's on-call time to answer occassional phone calls is not compensable because it does not restrict her from using her off time freely.

7. The compensable hours John actually has are 8 hours on Monday (8a-5p minus an hour lunch) and 4 hours on Tuesday (8a-12p). His travel away from home and those hours spent on the airplane are compensable because they fell within his normal working hours of 8a-5p. Any time away outside of his normal working hours is not compensable time.

8. The compensable hours John actually has are 12 hours minus 1 hour for lunch totalling 11 hours. His travel is not considered travel away from home because it did not include an overnight stay away from home. Because this travel was not travel away from home, his travel time to and from Kansas is compensable. "An employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city is given a special one day assignment in another city and returns home the same day. The time spent in traveling to and returning from the other city is work time". (DOL, 2023)

9. Toby does have a legitimate compensable time claim because any work done is compensable. So if he was eating his lunch but still answering questions during his lunch break, he was not " completely relieved from duty" (DOL, 2023), so that time is compensable.

10. Kelly does not have a legitimate counter complensable time claim because "Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry (and promote the efficiency of the employee) and are customarily paid for as working time" (DOL, 2023).

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