Legal Question in Employment Law in Ohio

Wage and hour w/OT

I own a small non-medical home care agency that provides help for seniors. Our employees start their day by travel form home to a client�s residence for a scheduled amount of time and then they travel to the next residence and so on until they return home. Schedules very from day to day and employee to employee because the needs of each client is different. I pay the employees on average $9.00 per hour; do I need to pay them travel time from one client to the next? I know I have to track the time for O.T. For example, if I have an employee works 4 hours at a client's home then travels 15 min. and starts the next case 1/2 hour later and works another 4 hours, and they do this 5 days a week. They would have worked 40 hours providing care and incurred 2.5 hours of time between clients. If I pay them $9 x 40 = $360.00 plus 2.5 x $13.50= $33.75 O.T. Do I still need to pay them regular pay for the 2.5 hours, since $360/42.5= $8.47 is above minimum wage?


Asked on 4/16/08, 1:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Gregory Gordillo Gordillo & Gordillo LLC

Re: Wage and hour w/OT

You are wise to be asking the questions you are asking. Although it is never easy for a small employer to swallow the idea of paying for legal counsel BEFORE a real problem exists, it is often much cheaper to do than paying for the counsel after an unhappy employee forces you to seek legal counsel.

Your question requires more interaction than this forum permits. Without that interaction, you are likely to get imprecise legal advice on an issue that could prove very costly to you and your business if mishandled.

If you want further education without paying a lawyer for it, I suggest you take a look at the website for the U.S Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. It is an excellent resource. Your greatest challenge there will be to surf through the material until you find what is on point. Here is the website address: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/

I hope this helps, but I urge you to seek direct advice from a lawyer experienced with wage and hour laws to help you.

Read more
Answered on 4/16/08, 3:41 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Labor and Employment Law questions and answers in Ohio