Human Resource Blog

On-Call Pay

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Is an employer obligated to pay an employee on call pay when the employee is at home or not restricted to the office. How is on call pay determined?

This is a thorny issue but the employee probably does not need to be paid while on call. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act makes a distinction between employees who are, as they put it, waiting to be engaged and employees who are paid (or engaged) to wait. An employee who is free to go about his or her own personal activities but must answer a beeper is on call. That employee is most likely waiting to be engaged under federal law. There is no need for the employer to pay the worker unless he or she is called in to work.

Now suppose a plumber was required to sit in the office waiting until a customer placed a service call. That employee is engaged to wait, meaning he is being hired to sit there and wait, not engaging in his personal activities. In that case, the employee must be paid for the time he is waiting, even if no call comes in.

There are grey areas with on call pay, so if you are in doubt you should probably contact the US Department of Labor. Some states have stricter laws affecting on call status, as well.

Read more about the FLSA here: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/