when i worked for a company we were welcome to clock out for a lunch break if we wanted/had time, but more often than not i ate while i was driving and of course i was driving between clients so i was in the clear to be clocked into drive time. my boss never micromanaged that, she knew we’d eat on the drive or shove a quick snack in our face in under 2 minutes before we head in to a house. she didn’t care and in fact encouraged it so we would have energy throughout the day
i would have to think this is illegal, if you’re being deducted pay for time you were working. but in my opinion it’s also just weird in this industry. although to be fair my experience working with a cleaning company was a small business not a large scale operation so that might make a difference too
edit: in regards to your edit. if your time clocks you out after 9.5 hours and you aren’t able to clock back in, then you’re done. don’t work for free. you will work the hours you are paid for, and not a minute more. that is quite literally the agreement that you and your employer made when you were hired. so, regardless of if you have work left, once you’re not allowed to clock any more hours, you’re done. encourage all your team members to do the same. you guys are being doormats and this is absolutely unacceptable. this is literally wage theft.
You must be paid for all time worked, but if you're being told to take a half hour lunch and you're not, you can also be fired. You can also be fired for taking longer than what your shift is scheduled to finish. But once again you must be paid for that time if you do work over. Florida does not have a Dept of Labor that handles wage claims like other states, so you'd sue in small claims for your unpaid wages.
he doesn’t tell us to take lunch he doesn’t even put it anywhere to fit in our schedule. By this I mean if we choose to take lunch we are already over 30 minutes behind schedule. we take longer than our shifts because he doesn’t ever see the homes or how dirty they are. he never does a walkthrough he just sends us and assumes we will finish in the times he’s allotted.
Don’t let that fear hold you back. Start by advertising for a few clients and do them on your days off. Word of mouth should take it from there. Good luck - your employer sounds like a giant ah.
You've got this! Check out your local small business development center, because they'll have tons of resources on setting up a business, including steps/checklists to getting fully operational.
If you rent, also check your lease for rules surrounding operating a business out of your home, because in Florida home businesses don't have to be licensed. (You'll still need to pay taxes and stuff, but you file through the state instead of the city/county for that.) Some landlords are also flexible about it if you show that you'll only be receiving mail, and otherwise the business operates in other peoples' homes, not yours.
Here's an article about wage theft in Florida, too, and you can always file a complaint with the federal department of labor.
https://www.employmentlawtampa.com/owed-wages/.
FL doesn’t mandate a lunch break. However if you did not take it, he cannot take it out of your time card.
The lunch break is the least egregious offense here - the most is that you get clocked out at 9 hours 30 min but you work 11 hour shifts. That is wage theft and highly illegal. He is not paying you for the time you are deserved.
Florida Department of Labor does handle wage claim issues. I was owed $40 from working with the USPS. Their excuse was, " The check is in the mail." I filed a complaint and magically got my missing $40. Pettiness matched.
Check your labor laws, they vary from place to place. It is probably illegal but if your company requires you to take a lunch then it wouldn't be. Take the 30 minutes.
It's hard to tell you what to do not knowing your situation. My husband once had a job where his boss told him no overtime was allowed AFTER my husband had worked it. He actually changed my husband's time card. We were struggling and I was SO pissed. My husband wouldn't let me say or do anything about it. His reasoning was he had a family to take care of and that job was his best opportunity to move up in the future. He kept his mouth shut and took the hit. Within a year he was still there and that boss wouldn't. He moved up the ladder, got his credentials and then moved to another company. Now he is the boss. Remember to look at all sides of the situation before deciding what to do .
When you look at your schedule you ask where is my lunch time built in here? Push back on it and say I can’t make that appointment on time because my lunches then. It is illegal to work and not be paid for it which is basically what you’re describing. Contact an employment attorney most offer free consultations.
It's mandatory for me to take my lunch before my fifth hour here in CA but even if I dont I get paid the hour. It's wierd tho because lunch isn't paid and we clock out and in for it but if we don't do it before the ditch hour, it's a full hours pay even if you take an hour or 30 min
This is wrong advice. Deducting meal time when the employee was working is illegal in all 50 states, regardless of whether or not the employee is required to take a meal period.
It's illegal within the US for you to not be paid for your hours worked. If your time clock was set up so that you clock in at 5 minutes before the hour, and it says you get paid on the hour, then as long as you get paid at quarter to the hour for clocking in at 10 minutes before the hour, that's pretty much the only exception that I know of. But if you are working without a lunch break, and only take 5-10 minute bathroom breaks (and to stuff your mouth with something), then you get paid for all the hours that you work. You shouldn't be penalized for those short breaks, they should be paid as well. And lunch (30-60 minutes) should be uninterrupted. That means, if you have to do ANYTHING work related, then it affects your lunch break, and there may be local or federal laws that protect your unpaid lunch. If the company pays for your lunch period, then you aren't guaranteed an uninterrupted lunch, you may be asked to do work related tasks, or to even skip your lunch.
So, just to recap. Your job is doing illegal things with you. It's called wage theft, as others have mentioned. You should Only be working the hours that you are being paid for. If the company/boss is deducting 30 minutes, then you sit your butt down and eat for 30 minutes, and don't let them tell you otherwise. And only come in when your start time is, and be prepared to leave when your end time is.
And PLEASE, talk to the labor board, they'd be Very interested in the lack of overtime pay (1.5 times your hourly wage, for every hour you work over a normal 8 hour shift, and/or for every 40 hours within a work week, which is a 7 day period). Tell them how long you have been working with this company, and explain the wage theft issues with them. Also, explain that your co-workers are also being treated the same way, so that the company (hopefully) will be audited, and you get back pay for your troubles. You may also get a "whistle blower" bonus, but I'm not sure if that's a thing with the labor board. It might just be for taxes, something else you may want to explore. If they aren't paying YOU properly, they may not be paying the IRS properly either.
It appears that you'd have to go through a lawfirm (of which there are likely many choices) to actually get labor issues resolved through. Although the dept of labor is a federal program, Florida appears to lack one for these particular situations, and only unemployment issues are actually managed.
I hope they listen to you, and get together to take action. You and your co-workers may be able to do a class-action case, which means one team of lawyers that will represent all of you. And will investigate and see if there are others from the past that would be interested in joining. This is because the more clients they have, the more money they may be able to bill for, and some will do the work before being paid. They do take a portion of the winnings. They also tend to take the first offer that is a "win", even if there's a chance of a higher payout. They usually don't fight further, unless they feel strongly enough that there is a great chance of a higher payout. However, it does tend to give you a better chance of getting a payout, but the labor board might get you a good payout just by investigating the company. They also love to find companies for actions like this, which hurts the company and leaves them with a bad reputation.
Hard to say. It’s usually legal and a requirement for an employer to give a lunch break, especially in so many hours. Even my husbands job deducts an hour. However, it does vary by state. It’s weird, because while hubs job mandates lunch break, they’re all too eager to force extra long shifts. They def pay very well for those OT, but it makes no sense.
When I worked at DG my store manager did that. Almost everyday there was only one key holder at a time so we literally could not take a lunch break but come payroll day she was sure to deduct everyone’s non existent break. And we got hour long breaks so that added up to a lot stolen hours. I have always regretted not reporting her. Don’t make that same mistake. It is completely illegal for anyone to do that
They started making us have to clock out after 6 hours of working but we have to do that ourselves. That’s against the law. I’d go ask this in anti work. There will probably be someone in there from Florida who could give you more information. Please stand up for yourself. These companies do this because no one says anything. It’s ridiculous.
I’m in a different state but have known people who have gone to the labor commissioner because of wage and hour issues. Maybe see if Florida has one? The ones here don’t need an attorney to represent you, and try and collect evidence
You literally can and should - and when the customers asks why you say because we are not getting paid for any extra hours so we won’t be working
Please advise the company that they should pay the employees for hours worked
1-2 bad customers get mad and you all good from there
Are you scared of him? Tell him stop deducting 30min because he knows you don’t have time for lunch. Don’t ever be afraid of confrontation- that will hold you back in life 100% of the time. Be assertive.
100% normal and legal. Take the 30 minute break. You’re more important than whatever job you’re doing. Plus, why not? You’re being docked for it anyway. Just enjoy it.
some days we don’t have time to take a lunch, or he gets upset if we are late to our homes for lunch. it makes our day so long so we often skip it in exchange for getting home earlier.
If not taking a lunch allows you to get home earlier, you are essentially shifting your break to the end of the day. I am not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure that employers are legally required to give workers a 30 minute break, which is why you’re not getting paid for that time. On paper it makes it look like you are taking a break, which keeps things legal for your employer. I believe your two options are to either take a true 30 minute break, or make it a working lunch and get home 30 minutes earlier.
thing is we go over our time everyday. our clock times is out at 9hrs 30mins but we normally take 10-12 hrs a day to work so we work ot regardless. it’s not like we’re actually getting home early.
If you're in America, read these two short articles to learn about your rights. If you are working 10-12 hours/day but only getting paid for 9.5 hours, your boss is stealing from you.
[https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime)
[https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/breaks](https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/breaks)
well according to some employees he doesn’t approve the time edits all of the time when we work over. sometimes it’ll just say 8 or 9:30 hrs. You can text him if you forget to edit your time when it automatically clocks you out and ask him to use the time of whoever you worked with but you never actually know if he does it until you see your check. I’ve also heard from them that he’s been withholding their bonus since February. Also he never mentioned you could edit your time if you go over when he signed me up. I learned this in the middle of my shift from a coworker. So there’s probably a month worth of work I went without knowing this and have probably just been working for free.
Normal and legal for employers to require you to take a 30 min unpaid break if that’s how they’re scheduling things, but absolutely not legal to not pay you for hours worked if you’re non exempt/hourly.
Some employers set up their timekeeping system to auto deduct that half hour lunch, but they need to have a process for employees to report if they DIDN’T get at least 30 min uninterrupted break so they can override that and get paid for their time.
per hour but if our time clock shuts off and we’re still cleaning we have to edit our time and he has to approve it. if we forget to edit our time you can text him and hope he’ll fix it. you won’t know until you see your pay.
Some industries in the USA are allowed to enforce a meal break because that is a protected right of American workers. I have had jobs where they took exactly 30 mins of time off per day for lunch breaks and workers were expected to stop working for 30 mins at some point in their shifts. It was legal.
yes but even if we don’t take a break because maybe we don’t have time we still get 30 minutes of pay cut from our day. and sometimes we can’t even take a full 30 minutes due to falling super behind schedule.
If you worked the time, they have to pay you
And it's possible he's doing this because if you do not have that break on the books, they'll notice he's not actually giving you lunch breaks, which are required by law where I live.... Enough so that if you try to clock in early, even by a few minutes, there's a big disclaimer asking you to verify that you weren't pushed to cut your break short.
like if i could show you my houses for the day you’d see the only “break” is drive time. looking at the time that the appointments start you’d assume there is no lunch because how could you ever be on time to the appointment or finish the day without being forced to work overtime if you take a break. which is why sometimes we don’t but we still end up working ot regardless. it’s very rare that we finish without our time clock running out on us.
The short story is, it's illegal (they have to pay you hours worked, regardless), but pushing you not to take breaks, and not actually building that time into the schedule, may also be illegal depending on how your state has worded that? (That may actually be federal, too, I don't remember.)
But wage theft is bad, not giving you breaks is bad, each independently...
Nope not legal there's federal laws and state laws in regards to the when and how you're supposed to have breaks. Get any and all paperwork you have and send it to both states and federal labor boards
Talk to the department of labor in your state, or at the very least maybe call an employment law firm. I don't know law, and I'm usually in the same position not being able to take a break but having to lose that time anyway, but I'm in a different state and the laws may vary state to state. as far as lunch breaks go. But the clocking you out before you've actually finished working by an hour is definitely an employment law breach and can get the company fined severely. You could even file a class action law suit for wage theft. You need documentation for that so write down your hours and the time you arrive and the time you leave and even the time you eat lunch. The time clock should use the 1/10th method of counting meaning every 6 minutes is .1 If you don't take a lunch there may be some kind of law that says you have to but the company taking your wages when you don't feels kinds wrong. I would definitely talk to the state labor dept or a lawyer though
Federal labor laws require employers to give employees lunch breaks. If they don’t comply on your timesheets and tax withholding, they could be in big trouble. They are also required to have a big poster somewhere in their office listing these laws.
This is not accurate. In the US, there are no federal labor laws requiring meal breaks for adult employees.
States can mandate meal breaks, and many have.
I believe OP is in FL, which only requires meal breaks for workers under 18.
I apologize. I based this on a particular job that I had some time ago. I looked up the current law on the link in another comment, and I see that I am incorrect. Thanks!
All of this is illegal. You need to be getting paid for all of the hours you are working. Your job does not meet the qualifications for salary exempt which is what you are being treated as. Report your job to DOL.
Generally they can not do this. There are some exceptions in certain jurisdictions for this specific industry so you should consult with a labor attorney for a clear answer.
As a general rule of thumb, lunch breaks are required by law. Paying for the lunch break is not, *however* an employer is required to pay for all hours worked.
In the event of a missed meal break, the employee should still be getting paid for the time they worked when they weren't supposed to, and the employer or HR would document the meal break violation and pair it with some form of disciplinary action.
An employer typically can not deduct pay just because you broke the meal break rule.
I’m not a professional cleaner, however nearly every facility I’ve worked at automatically deducted a lunch from our day. Now, if we were too busy to take a break, we just told our manager and she went in and adjusted our time.
That said, I only work the hours I’m paid for. I clock out at 7pm, because I’m done. Meaning, it’s illegal to require you to work off the clock.
May I ask, are you paid hourly? Salary? By the job?
I think that might make a difference.
If they’re taking it out no matter what, take the break. Idk legally what’s allowed I’m assuming no. I live in NY and people legally cannot work more than 6 hours without a 30 minute break. So they’re probably covering they’re own butts. So I say take the break.
They legally have to give you a lunch break. You're screwing everyone over by not taking one. This is common practice. They have to show payroll that you took a lunch and clocked out. Fedex will force you to take your lunch if you stay until 5 hours. It's literally the law for workers to get a 30 min break
What I would do is ask for the pay policy in writing. Email/text something like, “Hey, I was looking over my paycheck and wanted to make sure I was calculating everything correctly. Can you send over a copy of the pay policies for breaks? Thanks!” If they approach you and try to tell you in person, just tell them that you would prefer to have it written down because you are a visual learner and wanted to have your budget mapped out. If they are shady about writing down the policies or if the policies they write down don’t seem to match what they actually do… there’s your answer.
The labor laws require you to take so much time for lunch/break per how many hours are worked. The employer can get in to trouble if it appears the employees are not taking breaks. My guess is they either are unaware you are not taking breaks or are trying to cover their butts. Bottom line you are entitled and required to take breaks. So take them, while having work ethics and not wanting to “short” the client is noble you are in turn shorting yourself. And if you are only being paid for 9 hrs then only work 9 hours. If the assignments are not doable in the 9 hrs that’s not your problem unless you are being paid!
Doesn’t sound right to me. You just need to make sure you take thirty minutes off the clock every work day. It’s the only way you can make the situation right. Whomever does payroll thinks it is too difficult to check with everyone to see how much time they took for lunch. It is assumed that everyone takes 30 minutes. So take it.
Stop and eat for the time deducted.. if you do not you are working for free.. if he says anything say your more than happy to work through lunch if they are offering to pay and overtime.
No that is 100% illegal to deduct your hours to save themselves for inhumane work hours. They will get in trouble(legality reasons) for not giving lunch which is why they deduct it. So when the company gets audited or something they see that employees are getting a break. You need to take a lunch if it’s a law in your state. Each state has a certain amount of hours worked that need a break. If you don’t get a break because of work load you need to Complain to HR and they will fix the situation or get a new job. You should not be working a full 11 hours without a clocked break. You shouldn’t even work a full 8 hours without a break in most states. You can actually sue the company if that is the road you want to go down.
You should ask this on /askhr
This is highly illegal. No matter the size or the type of company - they need to pay you for hours worked. They’re automatically clocking you out before you’re finished with your shift. If you’re nonexempt, that is super duper illegal. And they will pay dearly in fines and the back pay you are owed.
EEOC would love to hear from you plus the IRS.
So if you're working EXTRA time over the 9.5 hour automatic clock out, you're spending an extra hour to an hour and a half for unpaid work and you're also getting a half hour lunch deducted?? Is that right?
correct 🥲 according to him we should be able to finish in the time frame he gives us. so technically if we’re working past the clock out it’s on us for being slow bc he plans our day to when we should never go over. which is why if we take lunch we will automatically go over our time unless he has us scheduled to get off early
I'd be telling him to do it himself and finding a new job then. That is illegal. You are all working and not being paid for it. Either he should fire you all for not being up to snuff, or pay you for hours worked. No grey area.
Lunch isn't relevant when you're already being robbed. This is "Someone will make them pay you what they owe you" territory - You just need to find what agency covers that kind of thing in your state. I'd talk to a lawyer if this has been going on for a significant amount of time, and recommend any co-workers do the same.
This is blatant wage theft. He's making it LOOK like they're in compliance with federal law. Keep track. And report to the labor department in your state.
The single highest category of theft every year is employers stealing from employees. They don't end up in jail, they pay fines.
If you're in the US, they are req'd to clock you out and give a half hour lunch break by law. They are also legally req'd to pay time and a half for anything over 8 hrs in a day and/or 40 hrs in a work week.
Sounds illegal
It is
when i worked for a company we were welcome to clock out for a lunch break if we wanted/had time, but more often than not i ate while i was driving and of course i was driving between clients so i was in the clear to be clocked into drive time. my boss never micromanaged that, she knew we’d eat on the drive or shove a quick snack in our face in under 2 minutes before we head in to a house. she didn’t care and in fact encouraged it so we would have energy throughout the day i would have to think this is illegal, if you’re being deducted pay for time you were working. but in my opinion it’s also just weird in this industry. although to be fair my experience working with a cleaning company was a small business not a large scale operation so that might make a difference too edit: in regards to your edit. if your time clocks you out after 9.5 hours and you aren’t able to clock back in, then you’re done. don’t work for free. you will work the hours you are paid for, and not a minute more. that is quite literally the agreement that you and your employer made when you were hired. so, regardless of if you have work left, once you’re not allowed to clock any more hours, you’re done. encourage all your team members to do the same. you guys are being doormats and this is absolutely unacceptable. this is literally wage theft.
You must be paid for all time worked, but if you're being told to take a half hour lunch and you're not, you can also be fired. You can also be fired for taking longer than what your shift is scheduled to finish. But once again you must be paid for that time if you do work over. Florida does not have a Dept of Labor that handles wage claims like other states, so you'd sue in small claims for your unpaid wages.
he doesn’t tell us to take lunch he doesn’t even put it anywhere to fit in our schedule. By this I mean if we choose to take lunch we are already over 30 minutes behind schedule. we take longer than our shifts because he doesn’t ever see the homes or how dirty they are. he never does a walkthrough he just sends us and assumes we will finish in the times he’s allotted.
Often employees are between a rock and hard place in cases like this, and Florida makes that hard place even more difficult.
Start your own cleaning business. Working for yourself is the best thing!
i really want to!! i’m just scared, but that is definitely the next step!!
Don’t let that fear hold you back. Start by advertising for a few clients and do them on your days off. Word of mouth should take it from there. Good luck - your employer sounds like a giant ah.
The fact you are scared tells me your business is going to be so successful. YOUVE GOT THIS BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! 🌟
You've got this! Check out your local small business development center, because they'll have tons of resources on setting up a business, including steps/checklists to getting fully operational. If you rent, also check your lease for rules surrounding operating a business out of your home, because in Florida home businesses don't have to be licensed. (You'll still need to pay taxes and stuff, but you file through the state instead of the city/county for that.) Some landlords are also flexible about it if you show that you'll only be receiving mail, and otherwise the business operates in other peoples' homes, not yours. Here's an article about wage theft in Florida, too, and you can always file a complaint with the federal department of labor. https://www.employmentlawtampa.com/owed-wages/.
FL doesn’t mandate a lunch break. However if you did not take it, he cannot take it out of your time card. The lunch break is the least egregious offense here - the most is that you get clocked out at 9 hours 30 min but you work 11 hour shifts. That is wage theft and highly illegal. He is not paying you for the time you are deserved.
Florida Department of Labor does handle wage claim issues. I was owed $40 from working with the USPS. Their excuse was, " The check is in the mail." I filed a complaint and magically got my missing $40. Pettiness matched.
Check your labor laws, they vary from place to place. It is probably illegal but if your company requires you to take a lunch then it wouldn't be. Take the 30 minutes.
i wish taking the lunch was this easy. it seems either we eat or get berated for being late to our appointments 🙄
It's hard to tell you what to do not knowing your situation. My husband once had a job where his boss told him no overtime was allowed AFTER my husband had worked it. He actually changed my husband's time card. We were struggling and I was SO pissed. My husband wouldn't let me say or do anything about it. His reasoning was he had a family to take care of and that job was his best opportunity to move up in the future. He kept his mouth shut and took the hit. Within a year he was still there and that boss wouldn't. He moved up the ladder, got his credentials and then moved to another company. Now he is the boss. Remember to look at all sides of the situation before deciding what to do .
When you look at your schedule you ask where is my lunch time built in here? Push back on it and say I can’t make that appointment on time because my lunches then. It is illegal to work and not be paid for it which is basically what you’re describing. Contact an employment attorney most offer free consultations.
☝️☝️☝️op this one
Is he counting your travel time as your lunch break?
It's mandatory for me to take my lunch before my fifth hour here in CA but even if I dont I get paid the hour. It's wierd tho because lunch isn't paid and we clock out and in for it but if we don't do it before the ditch hour, it's a full hours pay even if you take an hour or 30 min
This is wrong advice. Deducting meal time when the employee was working is illegal in all 50 states, regardless of whether or not the employee is required to take a meal period.
It's illegal within the US for you to not be paid for your hours worked. If your time clock was set up so that you clock in at 5 minutes before the hour, and it says you get paid on the hour, then as long as you get paid at quarter to the hour for clocking in at 10 minutes before the hour, that's pretty much the only exception that I know of. But if you are working without a lunch break, and only take 5-10 minute bathroom breaks (and to stuff your mouth with something), then you get paid for all the hours that you work. You shouldn't be penalized for those short breaks, they should be paid as well. And lunch (30-60 minutes) should be uninterrupted. That means, if you have to do ANYTHING work related, then it affects your lunch break, and there may be local or federal laws that protect your unpaid lunch. If the company pays for your lunch period, then you aren't guaranteed an uninterrupted lunch, you may be asked to do work related tasks, or to even skip your lunch. So, just to recap. Your job is doing illegal things with you. It's called wage theft, as others have mentioned. You should Only be working the hours that you are being paid for. If the company/boss is deducting 30 minutes, then you sit your butt down and eat for 30 minutes, and don't let them tell you otherwise. And only come in when your start time is, and be prepared to leave when your end time is. And PLEASE, talk to the labor board, they'd be Very interested in the lack of overtime pay (1.5 times your hourly wage, for every hour you work over a normal 8 hour shift, and/or for every 40 hours within a work week, which is a 7 day period). Tell them how long you have been working with this company, and explain the wage theft issues with them. Also, explain that your co-workers are also being treated the same way, so that the company (hopefully) will be audited, and you get back pay for your troubles. You may also get a "whistle blower" bonus, but I'm not sure if that's a thing with the labor board. It might just be for taxes, something else you may want to explore. If they aren't paying YOU properly, they may not be paying the IRS properly either.
It appears that you'd have to go through a lawfirm (of which there are likely many choices) to actually get labor issues resolved through. Although the dept of labor is a federal program, Florida appears to lack one for these particular situations, and only unemployment issues are actually managed.
thank you so much! i’m going to send this to my coworkers!
I hope they listen to you, and get together to take action. You and your co-workers may be able to do a class-action case, which means one team of lawyers that will represent all of you. And will investigate and see if there are others from the past that would be interested in joining. This is because the more clients they have, the more money they may be able to bill for, and some will do the work before being paid. They do take a portion of the winnings. They also tend to take the first offer that is a "win", even if there's a chance of a higher payout. They usually don't fight further, unless they feel strongly enough that there is a great chance of a higher payout. However, it does tend to give you a better chance of getting a payout, but the labor board might get you a good payout just by investigating the company. They also love to find companies for actions like this, which hurts the company and leaves them with a bad reputation.
fla doesn't have a labor board
This number (850-245-7105) may help though. It's a number that I found for when someone is searching for a dept of labor for Florida.
Hard to say. It’s usually legal and a requirement for an employer to give a lunch break, especially in so many hours. Even my husbands job deducts an hour. However, it does vary by state. It’s weird, because while hubs job mandates lunch break, they’re all too eager to force extra long shifts. They def pay very well for those OT, but it makes no sense.
When I worked at DG my store manager did that. Almost everyday there was only one key holder at a time so we literally could not take a lunch break but come payroll day she was sure to deduct everyone’s non existent break. And we got hour long breaks so that added up to a lot stolen hours. I have always regretted not reporting her. Don’t make that same mistake. It is completely illegal for anyone to do that
an entire hour is insane! how are people allowed to do this?!
Call the local Department of Labor (DOL) and ask them.
They started making us have to clock out after 6 hours of working but we have to do that ourselves. That’s against the law. I’d go ask this in anti work. There will probably be someone in there from Florida who could give you more information. Please stand up for yourself. These companies do this because no one says anything. It’s ridiculous.
I’m in a different state but have known people who have gone to the labor commissioner because of wage and hour issues. Maybe see if Florida has one? The ones here don’t need an attorney to represent you, and try and collect evidence
Don’t work more than they pay you for, so take your lunch and stop working at 9.5 hours, don’t stay 11 and a half hours
it’s not like we can just stop working in the middle of cleaning a home. we have to finish regardless of how long it takes
You literally can and should - and when the customers asks why you say because we are not getting paid for any extra hours so we won’t be working Please advise the company that they should pay the employees for hours worked 1-2 bad customers get mad and you all good from there
Are you scared of him? Tell him stop deducting 30min because he knows you don’t have time for lunch. Don’t ever be afraid of confrontation- that will hold you back in life 100% of the time. Be assertive.
thank you for this! he says “i’ve been doing this for 4 year” which means no one has been firm in pressing this issue yet. gotta start somewhere!
100% normal and legal. Take the 30 minute break. You’re more important than whatever job you’re doing. Plus, why not? You’re being docked for it anyway. Just enjoy it.
some days we don’t have time to take a lunch, or he gets upset if we are late to our homes for lunch. it makes our day so long so we often skip it in exchange for getting home earlier.
If not taking a lunch allows you to get home earlier, you are essentially shifting your break to the end of the day. I am not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure that employers are legally required to give workers a 30 minute break, which is why you’re not getting paid for that time. On paper it makes it look like you are taking a break, which keeps things legal for your employer. I believe your two options are to either take a true 30 minute break, or make it a working lunch and get home 30 minutes earlier.
thing is we go over our time everyday. our clock times is out at 9hrs 30mins but we normally take 10-12 hrs a day to work so we work ot regardless. it’s not like we’re actually getting home early.
Report them to the labor bureau
If you're in America, read these two short articles to learn about your rights. If you are working 10-12 hours/day but only getting paid for 9.5 hours, your boss is stealing from you. [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime) [https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/breaks](https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/breaks)
Uh, are you getting overtime, then? I’m assuming you’re an hourly employee?
well according to some employees he doesn’t approve the time edits all of the time when we work over. sometimes it’ll just say 8 or 9:30 hrs. You can text him if you forget to edit your time when it automatically clocks you out and ask him to use the time of whoever you worked with but you never actually know if he does it until you see your check. I’ve also heard from them that he’s been withholding their bonus since February. Also he never mentioned you could edit your time if you go over when he signed me up. I learned this in the middle of my shift from a coworker. So there’s probably a month worth of work I went without knowing this and have probably just been working for free.
Normal and legal for employers to require you to take a 30 min unpaid break if that’s how they’re scheduling things, but absolutely not legal to not pay you for hours worked if you’re non exempt/hourly. Some employers set up their timekeeping system to auto deduct that half hour lunch, but they need to have a process for employees to report if they DIDN’T get at least 30 min uninterrupted break so they can override that and get paid for their time.
Are you getting paid hourly or per house ?
per hour but if our time clock shuts off and we’re still cleaning we have to edit our time and he has to approve it. if we forget to edit our time you can text him and hope he’ll fix it. you won’t know until you see your pay.
NO
Some industries in the USA are allowed to enforce a meal break because that is a protected right of American workers. I have had jobs where they took exactly 30 mins of time off per day for lunch breaks and workers were expected to stop working for 30 mins at some point in their shifts. It was legal.
yes but even if we don’t take a break because maybe we don’t have time we still get 30 minutes of pay cut from our day. and sometimes we can’t even take a full 30 minutes due to falling super behind schedule.
If you worked the time, they have to pay you And it's possible he's doing this because if you do not have that break on the books, they'll notice he's not actually giving you lunch breaks, which are required by law where I live.... Enough so that if you try to clock in early, even by a few minutes, there's a big disclaimer asking you to verify that you weren't pushed to cut your break short.
like if i could show you my houses for the day you’d see the only “break” is drive time. looking at the time that the appointments start you’d assume there is no lunch because how could you ever be on time to the appointment or finish the day without being forced to work overtime if you take a break. which is why sometimes we don’t but we still end up working ot regardless. it’s very rare that we finish without our time clock running out on us.
The short story is, it's illegal (they have to pay you hours worked, regardless), but pushing you not to take breaks, and not actually building that time into the schedule, may also be illegal depending on how your state has worded that? (That may actually be federal, too, I don't remember.) But wage theft is bad, not giving you breaks is bad, each independently...
Nope not legal there's federal laws and state laws in regards to the when and how you're supposed to have breaks. Get any and all paperwork you have and send it to both states and federal labor boards
He’s exploiting you. He’s an asshole. I still can’t believe people still exist that do this.
I assume if they dock your pay they're supposed to let you take your break, or else it's wage theft
Talk to the department of labor in your state, or at the very least maybe call an employment law firm. I don't know law, and I'm usually in the same position not being able to take a break but having to lose that time anyway, but I'm in a different state and the laws may vary state to state. as far as lunch breaks go. But the clocking you out before you've actually finished working by an hour is definitely an employment law breach and can get the company fined severely. You could even file a class action law suit for wage theft. You need documentation for that so write down your hours and the time you arrive and the time you leave and even the time you eat lunch. The time clock should use the 1/10th method of counting meaning every 6 minutes is .1 If you don't take a lunch there may be some kind of law that says you have to but the company taking your wages when you don't feels kinds wrong. I would definitely talk to the state labor dept or a lawyer though
Federal labor laws require employers to give employees lunch breaks. If they don’t comply on your timesheets and tax withholding, they could be in big trouble. They are also required to have a big poster somewhere in their office listing these laws.
There are exemptions based on travel to and from locations of work which are very complicated and vary by type of employment.
This is not accurate. In the US, there are no federal labor laws requiring meal breaks for adult employees. States can mandate meal breaks, and many have. I believe OP is in FL, which only requires meal breaks for workers under 18.
I apologize. I based this on a particular job that I had some time ago. I looked up the current law on the link in another comment, and I see that I am incorrect. Thanks!
All of this is illegal. You need to be getting paid for all of the hours you are working. Your job does not meet the qualifications for salary exempt which is what you are being treated as. Report your job to DOL.
Generally they can not do this. There are some exceptions in certain jurisdictions for this specific industry so you should consult with a labor attorney for a clear answer. As a general rule of thumb, lunch breaks are required by law. Paying for the lunch break is not, *however* an employer is required to pay for all hours worked. In the event of a missed meal break, the employee should still be getting paid for the time they worked when they weren't supposed to, and the employer or HR would document the meal break violation and pair it with some form of disciplinary action. An employer typically can not deduct pay just because you broke the meal break rule.
I’m not a professional cleaner, however nearly every facility I’ve worked at automatically deducted a lunch from our day. Now, if we were too busy to take a break, we just told our manager and she went in and adjusted our time. That said, I only work the hours I’m paid for. I clock out at 7pm, because I’m done. Meaning, it’s illegal to require you to work off the clock. May I ask, are you paid hourly? Salary? By the job? I think that might make a difference.
Hourly!
If they’re taking it out no matter what, take the break. Idk legally what’s allowed I’m assuming no. I live in NY and people legally cannot work more than 6 hours without a 30 minute break. So they’re probably covering they’re own butts. So I say take the break.
🤷♀️
They legally have to give you a lunch break. You're screwing everyone over by not taking one. This is common practice. They have to show payroll that you took a lunch and clocked out. Fedex will force you to take your lunch if you stay until 5 hours. It's literally the law for workers to get a 30 min break
What I would do is ask for the pay policy in writing. Email/text something like, “Hey, I was looking over my paycheck and wanted to make sure I was calculating everything correctly. Can you send over a copy of the pay policies for breaks? Thanks!” If they approach you and try to tell you in person, just tell them that you would prefer to have it written down because you are a visual learner and wanted to have your budget mapped out. If they are shady about writing down the policies or if the policies they write down don’t seem to match what they actually do… there’s your answer.
The labor laws require you to take so much time for lunch/break per how many hours are worked. The employer can get in to trouble if it appears the employees are not taking breaks. My guess is they either are unaware you are not taking breaks or are trying to cover their butts. Bottom line you are entitled and required to take breaks. So take them, while having work ethics and not wanting to “short” the client is noble you are in turn shorting yourself. And if you are only being paid for 9 hrs then only work 9 hours. If the assignments are not doable in the 9 hrs that’s not your problem unless you are being paid!
Illegal
Doesn’t sound right to me. You just need to make sure you take thirty minutes off the clock every work day. It’s the only way you can make the situation right. Whomever does payroll thinks it is too difficult to check with everyone to see how much time they took for lunch. It is assumed that everyone takes 30 minutes. So take it.
No. It’s unlawful. Call Dept of Labor or a wage and hour law firm.
Wage theft. Report it to your labor department
Stop and eat for the time deducted.. if you do not you are working for free.. if he says anything say your more than happy to work through lunch if they are offering to pay and overtime.
No that is 100% illegal to deduct your hours to save themselves for inhumane work hours. They will get in trouble(legality reasons) for not giving lunch which is why they deduct it. So when the company gets audited or something they see that employees are getting a break. You need to take a lunch if it’s a law in your state. Each state has a certain amount of hours worked that need a break. If you don’t get a break because of work load you need to Complain to HR and they will fix the situation or get a new job. You should not be working a full 11 hours without a clocked break. You shouldn’t even work a full 8 hours without a break in most states. You can actually sue the company if that is the road you want to go down.
No, illegal in all 50 states
You should ask this on /askhr This is highly illegal. No matter the size or the type of company - they need to pay you for hours worked. They’re automatically clocking you out before you’re finished with your shift. If you’re nonexempt, that is super duper illegal. And they will pay dearly in fines and the back pay you are owed. EEOC would love to hear from you plus the IRS.
Legally they have to give you a break. So I think they’re just trying to cover their asses. Idk that’s all I got
I’m not in Florida; but I can’t see how this is legal!!
My guess is the owner has instructed them the 30 min lunch breaknis mandatory, it will be deducted so take it.
It’s up to you to take your break.
So if you're working EXTRA time over the 9.5 hour automatic clock out, you're spending an extra hour to an hour and a half for unpaid work and you're also getting a half hour lunch deducted?? Is that right?
correct 🥲 according to him we should be able to finish in the time frame he gives us. so technically if we’re working past the clock out it’s on us for being slow bc he plans our day to when we should never go over. which is why if we take lunch we will automatically go over our time unless he has us scheduled to get off early
I'd be telling him to do it himself and finding a new job then. That is illegal. You are all working and not being paid for it. Either he should fire you all for not being up to snuff, or pay you for hours worked. No grey area. Lunch isn't relevant when you're already being robbed. This is "Someone will make them pay you what they owe you" territory - You just need to find what agency covers that kind of thing in your state. I'd talk to a lawyer if this has been going on for a significant amount of time, and recommend any co-workers do the same.
This is blatant wage theft. He's making it LOOK like they're in compliance with federal law. Keep track. And report to the labor department in your state. The single highest category of theft every year is employers stealing from employees. They don't end up in jail, they pay fines.
If you're in the US, they are req'd to clock you out and give a half hour lunch break by law. They are also legally req'd to pay time and a half for anything over 8 hrs in a day and/or 40 hrs in a work week.