It’s easy to lose track of time when you work from home and forget to change out of your work sweatpants and into your relaxing sweatpants at the end of the day. But while teleworking eschews much of the formality of the workplace, it remains critically important that employers don’t lose track of hourly employees’ time. Employers are still ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with wage and hour laws.

Keep these tips in mind if you have hourly employees working from home:

• Set a schedule and adapt where necessary. Set clear working hours, and make clear that employees are not expected to work outside of those hours. Consider reasonable adjustments to working hours to fit employees’ needs (i.e., to care for kids at home).
• Get your team on board. Make sure the whole team is aware of hourly schedules and don’t expect work to be done outside of those schedules.
• Keep daily time. Hourly employees should track and submit their actual time worked daily, including meal breaks where applicable.
• Take breaks. Where local laws or workplace policies provide for meal and/or rest breaks, hourly employees are still entitled to them when teleworking. Remind them to take their breaks and to record their meal breaks accurately.
• Communicate. As always, keeping in touch is critical. Stay up-to-date on employees’ workloads, make clear the policies and expectations regarding working from home, and remind them to track their time and take their breaks.

The ability to work from home during this difficult time is an enormous benefit for both employers and employees. It also brings challenges in complying with the multitude of wage and hour laws, which are easy to forget in the informal work-from-home environment. Following these best practices will help smooth the transition and avoid common mistakes.

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THIS DOCUMENT PROVIDES A GENERAL SUMMARY AND IS FOR INFORMATIONAL/EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE COMPREHENSIVE, NOR DOES IT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT WITH COUNSEL BEFORE TAKING OR REFRAINING FROM TAKING ANY ACTION.