It’s Daylight Savings. Did You Get Paid For It?

This past Sunday was the end of Daylight Savings Time — and in preparation for the winter, we “fall back” by setting back our clocks an hour. That change usually occurs at midnight (or really, just before midnight). So when the clock hit 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, after one minute, it jumped back to 11 p.m.
There are many reasons we use Daylight Saving Time, primarily to change when the sun sets. We “fall back” in autumn, and “spring forward” in, you guessed it, spring.
However, when we “fall back” on the clock, hourly workers may be affected. U.S. Representative for the state of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reminded her followers (and all workers) how that may happen:
If your pay is hourly — and whether it’s logged by a computer, which may miss the time change, or a person, who may forget the time change — and you were working on Saturday night as the change took effect, you might not have been paid correctly.
Make sure to check your pay stub! You should be paid not for one hour from 11 p.m. to midnight, but two hours. If not, you need to make sure your labor isn’t stolen.
The Fair Labor Standards Act puts it simply with this example:
“The scheduled shift starts at 11:00 p.m. and ends at 7:30 a.m. The next day, your employee works an eight- hour shift and receives a 30-minute lunch break.
On the Sunday that Daylight Savings Time starts at 2:00 a.m., the employee does not work the hour from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. because at 2:00 a.m. all of the clocks are turned forward to 3:00 a.m. Thus, on this day the employee only worked 7 hours, even though the schedule was for 8 hours.
On the Sunday that Daylight Savings Time ends at 2:00 a.m., the employee works the hour from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. twice because at 2:00 a.m. all of the clocks are turned back to 1:00 a.m. Thus, on this day the employee worked 9 hours, even though the schedule only reflected 8 hours.”
Wage theft can happen in a number of ways, but this way is easily forgotten. Make sure you get paid what you deserve, no matter how the clock changes.
