Can Your Employer Ask You to ‘Volunteer’? When Charity and Civic Work Counts as Paid Time
Can your employer ask you to volunteer?
Charity 5Ks, food drives and community cleanup days are common at work. Under federal wage-hour rules, whether that time is paid depends on who’s asking and when it happens.
- Charity or civic work at the employer’s request, under its direction or control, or while you must be on the premises is working time.
- Truly voluntary charity work outside normal working hours is not hours worked.
- For public agencies, a volunteer must serve freely, without pressure or coercion and without expectation of pay.
- Public employees can’t volunteer to do the same type of work they’re employed to do for the same agency.
The general rule
29 CFR 785.44, civic and charitable work states it simply: “Time spent in work for public or charitable purposes at the employer’s request, or under his direction or control, or while the employee is required to be on the premises, is working time. However, time spent voluntarily in such activities outside of the employee’s normal working hours is not hours worked.”
So a company day of service that your manager assigns you to, or that happens during your shift, is generally paid time. A charity run you sign up for on your own on a Saturday is not.
Public-sector employees
Under 29 CFR 553.101, volunteer defined, someone who serves a public agency “for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation” is a volunteer for that time. The regulation says Congress wanted to prevent “any manipulation or abuse of minimum wage or overtime requirements through coercion or undue pressure upon individuals to ‘volunteer’ their services.” Volunteers count only where services are “offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied, from an employer.”
Under 29 CFR 553.102, employment by the same public agency, a public employee can’t volunteer hours doing “the same type of services” they’re employed to perform for the same public agency.
Questions to ask
- Is it during my scheduled hours, or required to be at the worksite?
- Was I asked or assigned by a supervisor, or would saying no affect my reviews?
- Is it the same work I’m normally paid to do?
If any answer is yes, the time may be compensable. See whether training time is paid and how to file an unpaid wage complaint.
General information, not legal advice. State laws vary; check your state labor department or an employment attorney for your situation.
Header image: Photo: “Sorting donations for Grenfell Tower fire victims” by ChiralJon, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).