By Dan Davis, July 8, 2026
If you show up early to get your station ready, boot up a computer, put on required gear, or take a handoff from the last shift — and none of that time shows up on your paycheck — you may be working for free. Federal wage law says that in many cases you shouldn’t be. In late May 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued new guidance (Opinion Letter FLSA2026-8) reminding employers of a rule that has been on the books for decades: workers generally have to be paid for the tasks they perform before their scheduled shift begins. Here is what that means for Louisiana workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal law that guarantees most hourly employees the minimum wage and overtime. It uses a broad definition of “work.” An employer must pay you for any time it “suffers or permits” you to work — meaning if your employer knows, or should know, that you are doing your job, it has to pay you for that time, even if no one specifically told you to start early.
Because Louisiana has no state minimum-wage law of its own, the federal FLSA is the standard here. That makes the federal rules on off-the-clock work and overtime especially important for workers across Baton Rouge and the rest of the state.
Not every minute you spend on your employer’s property is paid time. The key question the Department of Labor and the courts ask is whether a task is “integral and indispensable” to your main job — in other words, whether it is a necessary part of the work you were hired to do.
In its May 2026 opinion letter, the Department applied that test to hospital workers. It concluded that activities like a respiratory therapist receiving a handoff report on patients, or locating patient assignments before starting rounds, are compensable — because the worker cannot safely do the job without them. The U.S. Supreme Court has drawn the same line in cases like Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, holding that tasks are paid work when they are an intrinsic part of the job the employee was hired to perform.
Common examples of pre-shift tasks that are often compensable include putting on required protective gear, setting up or checking equipment, booting up and logging into work computer systems, and reviewing charts or reports you need before you begin. By contrast, time spent simply waiting in line to punch a time clock, or walking from the clock to your work area, usually does not have to be paid — as long as it happens before your first real job task of the day.
Many employers use software that rounds your clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest set interval. Rounding is legal, but only if it is fair. Under the Department of Labor’s regulations, a rounding system is allowed only when it is neutral — meaning that over time it balances out and does not consistently shortchange the worker.
The 2026 opinion letter flagged a system that only ever rounded in the employer’s favor: it pushed early clock-ins forward to the scheduled start time while never giving workers the benefit of rounding the other way. The Department warned that if employees are actually doing job tasks during those rounded-off minutes, that kind of one-sided rounding is not neutral and can add up to unpaid wages — and possibly unpaid overtime. A few minutes a day may sound small, but across weeks and months it can become real money you are owed.
Yes. Overtime under the FLSA is one and one-half times your regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. If your employer isn’t counting the time you work before your shift, your total hours are being undercounted — which means you may be missing overtime pay you earned. The Department has cautioned that with modern electronic timekeeping, employers can track this time accurately, so failing to pay for regular off-the-clock work is harder than ever to excuse.
These cases are not just theory. At Estes Davis Law, we recently represented a group of restaurant workers who were required to arrive 45 minutes before their shift and — without clocking in — perform pre-shift tasks like rolling silverware, cleaning, and refilling condiment bottles. At the end of the night, they were told to clock out while they were still closing out their last table, and then keep working off the clock — often for more than an hour — cleaning the dining room and finishing other jobs for the restaurant. In other words, they were required to work without pay both before and after every single shift. We were able to recover compensation for these workers for the time they had put in but were never paid for. If your job routinely asks you to “help out” before you clock in or after you clock out, the same principles may apply to you.
Start by keeping your own notes: when you actually arrive, what you do before your shift, and when you clock out. Save copies of schedules, timesheets, and pay stubs if you can. You generally cannot be fired or punished for asserting your right to be paid — the FLSA protects workers from retaliation for raising wage complaints. If you think you’re not being paid for all your time, an attorney can review your situation and, where the law allows, help you recover back wages, and in some cases an equal amount in additional damages plus attorney’s fees.
If you believe you are being underpaid for hours you have worked in Louisiana, the attorneys at Estes Davis Law are here to help. Call us at (225) 336-3394 for a free, confidential consultation. Se habla español.
This article is general information about Louisiana law and is not legal advice. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its own facts. For advice about your situation, please consult an attorney.
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