Opinion Letter FLSA2026-8, issued May 28, 2026, examined a public hospital's pre-shift work and time-rounding practices. The request described employees who could clock in up to seven minutes early and then perform activities such as equipment preparation, chart review, locating assignments, and receiving patient handoff reports.
The timekeeping system rounded early clock-ins forward to the scheduled shift start. The Wage and Hour Division said the facts raised substantial questions about whether the hospital paid for all compensable hours worked.
Integral pre-shift activities can be compensable
Activities performed before the scheduled shift may be paid work when they are integral and indispensable to the employee's principal activities.
For respiratory therapists, the opinion letter identified receiving patient handoff reports and locating assignments as examples that appeared integral to safely beginning patient care. When an employee cannot perform the principal job safely or effectively without the activity, the activity may start the compensable workday.
Waiting to clock in is usually different
The Department distinguished productive or integral work from simply waiting in line to use a time clock. Waiting to clock in or out before the first principal activity or after the last principal activity is generally preliminary or postliminary and not compensable under the Portal-to-Portal Act.
The sequence matters. Once an employee begins a principal activity, later walking or waiting during the continuous workday may receive different treatment.
The de minimis doctrine is narrow
The de minimis doctrine may allow genuinely uncertain, irregular, and administratively impractical seconds or minutes to be disregarded. It does not create an automatic seven-minute grace period.
The Department emphasized several considerations:
- How difficult the time is to record
- The total amount of uncompensated time
- How regularly the work occurs
- Whether electronic systems already capture the exact time
Regular, predictable work that is electronically recorded is difficult to dismiss as de minimis. Modern timekeeping technology can weaken an employer's argument that recording a few minutes is administratively impractical.
Rounding must be neutral
Federal regulations permit rounding to a fraction of an hour only when the practice does not, over time, result in employees being underpaid for hours actually worked.
A compliant practice must generally be:
- Neutral on its face
- Neutral in actual operation
- Capable of benefiting employees as well as the employer
- Evaluated over a meaningful period
In the hospital example, if employees performed compensable work after clocking in early, rounding every early clock-in forward to the scheduled start exclusively benefited the employer. Under those facts, the Department said the practice would be inconsistent with the federal rounding regulation.
Rounding without compensable work
A time-clock entry does not automatically begin paid work. If an employee clocks in early and merely waits without performing a principal activity, rounding may not remove compensable time because no compensable work occurred.
Employers must therefore analyze both questions:
- Was the employee performing compensable work?
- If so, did the rounding system remove that work time?
Unauthorized work still may be payable
An employer must generally pay for compensable work it knows or has reason to know is being performed. A policy prohibiting early work can support compliance only when the employer actually enforces it and provides a reasonable way to report all work time.
Employers may discipline workers for violating a scheduling policy, but they should not erase known work from payroll.
Payroll example
An employee clocks in at 6:53 a.m., immediately reviews required patient information, and begins the scheduled shift at 7:00 a.m. The system rounds the entry to 7:00 a.m. If the seven minutes of chart review are integral and known to the employer, the system may be deleting compensable time.
Five days of seven minutes equals 35 minutes. When the employee already works 40 recorded hours, that additional time may create overtime.
Employer checklist
- Identify all tasks employees perform before and after scheduled shifts.
- Stop supervisors from encouraging unrecorded work.
- Configure systems to preserve actual compensable time.
- Test whether rounding favors one side over time.
- Provide a correction process for missing time.
- Audit electronic login, assignment, and communication timestamps.
- Review stricter state laws, including jurisdictions that limit federal-style rounding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is pre-shift chart review paid?
It may be when the review is integral and indispensable to the employee's principal duties and the employer knows or should know it occurs.
Is waiting in line for a time clock paid?
Ordinary waiting before the first principal activity or after the last principal activity is generally not compensable under federal law.
Can employers ignore seven minutes as de minimis?
No automatic seven-minute rule exists. Regularity, recordability, total time, and administrative difficulty must be analyzed.
Is time rounding legal?
Federal law permits neutral rounding that averages out over time and does not systematically underpay employees.
Can a rounding system always round early arrivals forward?
If employees perform compensable work during that interval and never receive offsetting benefits, the practice may violate federal requirements.
Official Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor — Opinion Letter FLSA2026-8
- 29 C.F.R. § 785.48
- U.S. Department of Labor — May 29, 2026 opinion-letter announcement
This article summarizes federal guidance and is not legal advice. State timekeeping and rounding rules may be more protective.
This calculator is for educational purposes only. Consult your employer or a labor attorney for advice specific to your situation.