Healthcare entities have faced increasing pressure from the Department of Labor regarding wage and hour issues. Some of this is a hangover from COVID and the long hours many healthcare workers endured trying to meet the needs of their communities, but other issues are longstanding. Particularly in Iowa, there has been a continuing pattern of the issues and concerns raised both by the state and federal DOL.
As everyone in healthcare knows, a hospital system in Washington state had a significant wage and hour case which was based both on issues under the rounding rule as well as specific rules for paid breaks which are part of Washington state law. This case made it increasingly clear that the DOL will assess the rounding rules requirements very carefully, specifically that any rounding done must benefit the employer and employee equally.. Even minor deviations, by a percentage point or two, could lead to penalties and backpay through the DOL.
While the rounding rule has historically made sense, particularly when someone with an adding machine was doing payroll, this case denotes a shift to no rounding given the computerized nature of payroll and clocking in as well as the increasing specificity of how we track employees. Given DOL’s stated position, rounding is likely to create a red flag in any DOL review.
The DOL has long indicated that it is not a fan of the automatic clock-out. In many instances, the DOL feels that...
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