Do You Get Paid for Waiting Time at Work? ‘Engaged to Wait’ vs ‘Waiting to Be Engaged’
Do you get paid for waiting time?
Waiting for a delivery, for a machine to be fixed or for the next assignment can eat up a shift. Whether that time is paid under the Fair Labor Standards Act depends on one distinction in the Department of Labor’s rules: are you engaged to wait, or waiting to be engaged?
- If waiting is an integral part of the job and the time belongs to the employer, you’re engaged to wait and it counts as hours worked.
- Downtime is off duty only if you’re completely relieved, told in advance you may leave, and told exactly when to come back.
- On-call time on or near the employer’s premises, where you can’t use the time for yourself, counts as work.
- Merely leaving word where you can be reached is generally not work time.
Engaged to wait: paid
Under 29 CFR 785.15, on duty, a stenographer reading a book while waiting for dictation, a messenger doing a crossword while awaiting assignments, a firefighter playing checkers between alarms and a factory worker chatting while machinery is repaired “are all working during their periods of inactivity.” The rule also covers a repair worker waiting for a customer to get the premises ready. The time is worktime “even though the employee is allowed to leave the premises or the job site,” because the periods are unpredictable and short, and the time “belongs to and is controlled by the employer.”
Waiting to be engaged: unpaid
Under 29 CFR 785.16, off duty, periods when you are “completely relieved from duty” and that are long enough to use effectively for your own purposes are not hours worked. But you’re not completely relieved “unless he is definitely told in advance that he may leave the job and that he will not have to commence work until a definitely specified hour has arrived.”
The regulation’s truck driver examples:
- Waiting at or near the job site while goods are loaded is work.
- Waiting at the destination while required to look after the employer’s property is work.
- Arriving in New York at noon and being completely relieved of all duty until a 6 p.m. return trip is not work time.
On-call time
29 CFR 785.17, on-call time says an employee required to stay on call on the employer’s premises, or so close that they can’t use the time effectively for their own purposes, is working. One who only has to leave word where they can be reached is not. More detail is in our guide to on-call time pay rules.
What to do
- Write down waiting periods, who told you to wait, and whether you were free to leave and told when to return.
- Compare your pay stub to your hours. See overtime rules if waiting time pushes you past 40 hours.
- See how to file an unpaid wage complaint if you’re not being paid for it.
General information, not legal advice. State laws vary; check your state labor department or an employment attorney for your situation.
Header image: Photo: “Ceiling Clock, Amtrak Waiting Room (Gentlemen's Lounge), Cincinnati Union Termin” by Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States, CC0 (cropped).