If an employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek, you must pay overtime even if you never approved it. Under the FLSA, work that you suffer or permit counts as hours worked, so a rule that says "no overtime without approval" can be enforced with discipline, but never with unpaid wages.

This article explains why unapproved hours still get paid, how to write a pre-approval policy that holds up, how to calculate the cost, and how to use time clock data to stop surprise overtime before payroll closes.

The DOL's hours worked rules (29 CFR Part 785) say that if you know or have reason to know that an employee is working, the time is compensable. The test is whether the work was suffered or permitted, not whether a manager signed off. A supervisor who sees an employee answering customer emails at 6:30 p.m. and says nothing has permitted the work.

The same is true when overtime is simply visible in your own records. If the time clock shows 46 hours for the week, you cannot treat the last 6 as a mistake. Paying only for the approved 40 creates a back wage claim, and a court can add an equal amount as liquidated damages plus attorney fees.

Federal law does not require employers to give meal or rest breaks to adult workers. The FLSA only decides whether a break is paid or unpaid, and the rules for that are strict. Breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are paid, while a bona fide meal period of about 30 minutes or more can be unpaid if the employee is fully relieved of duty.

Many states add their own break laws, and those rules, not the federal ones, are what most employers actually have to follow. Here is how to sort out federal rules, state rules and the records that prove compliance.

The DOL's hours worked regulations (29 CFR Part 785) are the only federal rules on breaks. Short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are paid time under section 785.18 and count toward the 40-hour overtime threshold. An employer cannot clock them out and subtract them.

The FLSA does not say how many breaks to offer, when to offer them, or whether a minor is entitled to one. Federal rules also do not require a lunch period at all. If your state is silent, the choice is yours, but the pay rules still apply to whatever you decide.

In California, an employer who fails to provide a compliant meal or rest break owes one extra hour of pay at the employee's regular rate, for each workday in which the violation happened, under Labor Code section 226.7. A missed meal and a missed rest break are separate violations, so one day can carry two premiums.

The rules are detailed and the penalties add up quickly. This article covers when breaks are due, how the premium is calculated, what waivers are allowed, and why the time clock is the main piece of evidence.

A nonexempt employee is entitled to a 30-minute meal period before the end of the fifth hour of work, and a second meal period before the end of the tenth hour. The employee must be relieved of all duty and free to leave the premises, otherwise the break is on duty and the time must be paid.

Rest breaks are 10 minutes of paid time for every 4 hours worked or major fraction. The break should be in the middle of each work period where practical. Rest time is paid and counts as hours worked, so it should never be clocked out.

There is no federal paid sick leave law for most private employers, but roughly 20 states plus Washington, D.C. now require it, along with dozens of cities and counties. Counts differ slightly between sources, depending on whether D.C. is included and how narrower laws are treated, so check the current rule for each place where you have employees.

This article explains what the state and city laws usually require, how accrual works, and how to track balances, usage and carryover accurately in 2026.

State laws include California, New York, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois, among others. Cities and counties add their own ordinances, and some are stricter than the state. If you have workers in several places, the safest approach is to apply the most generous rule in each location, or track each location separately.

Missouri's voter-approved law was repealed in 2025, which is a reminder that these laws change often. This is general information, not legal advice, so confirm current rules with your state labor department or counsel before building a policy.

Federal law does not require paid vacation or PTO, so your policy is whatever you write, until a state law or a contract says otherwise. What the law does control is what happens to accrued time: some states treat earned vacation as wages that must be paid out at termination, and some ban use-it-or-lose-it rules.

This article covers how to design accruals, carryover and caps, what you owe when someone leaves, and how to keep balances accurate enough to survive a dispute.

The FLSA does not require vacation, holidays or PTO. State law is where the rules are. California requires payout of accrued vacation at termination and bans use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture, though it allows reasonable accrual caps. Other states defer to the employer's written policy, and a few apply payout rules only if the policy or practice promises it.

Because the answer depends on the state and the wording of your handbook, ask counsel or the state labor department before changing a plan. This is general information, not legal advice.

An employee is eligible for FMLA leave when the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles, and the employee has worked for the employer for 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before the leave starts. Eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave in a 12-month period for qualifying reasons.

The hard part is not the rule but the tracking: counting the 1,250 hours, recording intermittent leave in the right increments, and keeping the records the DOL expects. This article walks through each step.

Coverage and eligibility are two different tests. A covered employer is a private employer with 50 or more employees for 20 or more workweeks in the current or prior year, and all public agencies and schools. An eligible employee must meet the 12-month, 1,250-hour and worksite tests.

The 12 months of service do not have to be consecutive. Time worked in earlier stints counts in many cases, with limits for breaks of seven years or more. Eligibility is measured when the leave starts, so keep a running record of hours for every employee, not just those who ask.

No federal law requires private employers to give paid holidays or to pay extra for working on one. Holiday pay is a matter of policy, contract and state law, and the FLSA applies only to the hours an employee actually works. If you decide to offer it, you can set the terms, as long as you apply them consistently and do not discriminate.

This article covers what the law requires, how to build a holiday policy, how holiday pay interacts with overtime and the regular rate, and what to record.

The FLSA does not require pay for holidays not worked, premium pay for working on a holiday, or time off. A restaurant open on Thanksgiving can pay the normal rate. Premium holiday pay is a benefit employers choose to offer, not a legal obligation, unless an employment contract, union agreement or state law says otherwise.

Federal holidays matter only for public employees and for government contracts. For private employers, there is no such thing as a legal holiday that forces you to close or pay more.

You can discipline employees for being late, and you can pay them only for the time they actually worked, but you cannot dock pay for time that was worked, and you cannot count protected absences against them. A point system is lawful when it is written, consistently applied and tied to accurate time records.

This article shows how to write a tardiness policy, how pay deductions work for nonexempt and exempt employees, which absences must be excluded, and how to keep the records that support your decisions.

For a nonexempt employee, pay follows time worked. If an employee clocks in 12 minutes late, you pay from the actual clock-in time. You may not deduct more than the time missed, and you may not keep an hour of pay as a penalty for a 5-minute delay.

Rounding rules apply to late punches as well. Rounding is only lawful if it is neutral over time, as in the quarter-hour method described in our article on the 7-minute rule. A policy that always rounds late arrivals up to the next quarter hour but never rounds early work in the employee's favor is a wage claim waiting to happen.

Yes, a mobile time clock app is legal. The FLSA requires accurate records of hours worked but does not require a particular timekeeping method or device, so a phone app is as valid as a punch clock, a paper timesheet or a spreadsheet, as long as it is complete and accurate.

The legal question is not whether to use an app but whether the app produces records that are accurate, tamper-resistant and available when someone asks for them. This article shows what to check.

Under 29 CFR Part 516, an employer must keep, for nonexempt employees, the hours worked each workday and each workweek, the regular rate, straight-time earnings, overtime premium and total wages. Payroll records must be kept for 3 years and time cards for 2 years.

The method is up to you. This means a mobile app can satisfy the rule, and so can any other system. The standard is accuracy. See FLSA timekeeping requirements for the full data list.

If you collect fingerprints, face scans or other biometric identifiers for timekeeping, you may need written notice, written consent and a public retention policy first. Illinois's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA, 740 ILCS 14) is the strictest law, and Texas and Washington also regulate biometric identifiers.

This article explains what BIPA requires, how a 2024 amendment changed the damages exposure, what Texas and Washington add, and when a non-biometric clock-in is the simpler choice.

BIPA applies to private entities that collect biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, retina scans and face geometry. Before collecting, you must give written notice that biometric data is being collected and why, state how long it will be kept, and obtain a written release from the person. You must also publish a retention schedule and destroy the data when the purpose ends.

The law covers employees, applicants and customers. It also restricts selling or profiting from the data and requires reasonable security. Because BIPA allows private lawsuits, the practical risk is class action litigation, not a state agency fine.