In California, employers are required by law to keep track of all the time their hourly employees work and pay their employees for all the time they spend working. Unfortunately, employees are often subjected to working without being paid or “off-the-clock”. This may happen because of employers deliberately requesting that employees work after clocking out or through ways that are less apparent. Even if it may seem to be a minimal amount of time, a few minutes every day can eventually add up to a lot. 

Often, employees are unsure if they are supposed to be paid for certain things they do off-the-clock, or it doesn’t cross their mind that they are doing off the clock work. For example, if an employer requires their employee to put on (donning) protective equipment before clocking in or take off (doffing) protective equipment after clocking out, that counts as off-the-clock work. Also, if an employee has to spend time booting up their computer or waiting to clock in due to technical difficulties with a timeclock, that counts as off-the-clock work as well.