Is Training Time Paid? The 4-Part Federal Test for Meetings and Classes
- Training, lectures and meetings are unpaid only if all four federal criteria are met.
- If attendance is required, during work hours, related to your job, or involves productive work, it must be paid.
- Mandatory safety or onboarding training is almost always paid time.
Employers sometimes schedule “optional” trainings after hours or ask new hires to complete online courses at home. Federal law has a clear test for when that time can go unpaid.
The four criteria
Under 29 CFR 785.27, attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time only if all of the following are true:
- Attendance is outside the employee’s regular working hours.
- Attendance is in fact voluntary.
- The course, lecture or meeting is not directly related to the employee’s job.
- The employee does not perform any productive work during attendance.
Fail any one and the time is generally work time.
Common situations
- Required onboarding modules done at home: not voluntary, and directly related to the job, so it should be paid.
- A weekly staff meeting during your shift: during working hours, so paid.
- An evening class you chose to take for a different career: likely unpaid, if your employer doesn’t require it.
- “Optional” training your manager says you need for your review: may not be truly voluntary.
How DOL defines “voluntary” and “directly related”
29 CFR 785.28 says attendance isn’t voluntary if it is required, and it isn’t voluntary in fact if you are “given to understand or led to believe” that your working conditions or continued employment would be hurt by not attending.
Under 29 CFR 785.29, training is directly related to your job if it is designed to make you handle your current job more effectively, as opposed to training you for another job or a new skill. The regulation’s example: a stenographer given a stenography course is working; a stenographer who voluntarily takes a bookkeeping course after hours is not. A course set up in good faith to prepare you for advancement to a higher skill isn’t considered directly related, even if it incidentally helps your current work.
And 29 CFR 785.30 says that if you attend an independent school, college or trade school after hours on your own initiative, that time is not hours worked, even if the courses relate to your job.
Why it matters for your paycheck
Training time counts toward the 40 hours that trigger overtime. Eight hours of required training in a week you also work 40 hours means 8 hours of overtime pay at time-and-a-half.
Related reading: DOL Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked.
Published October 27, 2026. Sources are linked in the text.
Header image: original graphic by JobPayRaise.com.
Comments (1)
A money angle on training: if your employer pays for job-related or degree courses through a written educational assistance program, up to $5,250 a year can be excluded from your taxable wages, and that limit now also covers employer payments toward your student loans. Source: IRS Publication 15-B (2026).