Rounding to the Quarter Hour Only if it Benefits the Company

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Nebraska

The restaurant I work has a questionable way of rounding the time clock. My start time is 11am each day. If I punch the time clock anywhere between 10:52 and 11:00, you are not paid any of that time. So if you work from 11am to 7:30pm with a thirty minute lunch break and you punch the clock at 10:52 for your in punch, an even 30 minutes for your lunch break, and off the clock promptly at 7:30, you are paid for 8 hours. Not 8 hour and 8 minutes. I have read that this is permissible as long as the rounding works both ways.

So if I am five minutes late one day and punch the clock at 11:05, the time should back up to 11:00. The problem is, my restaurant does not recognize the late punch as anything but 11:05. So again if the same conditions exist as before, only the punch in time is 11:05, I am now going to be paid for seven hours and 55 minutes instead of 8 full hours.

Is this legal? Obviously I am afraid of the restaurant manager or the corporate office knowing I am asking this question or I would have asked the manager.

Thank you.

title 29, 785.48 Use of time clocks.

(b) “Rounding” practices. It has been found that in some industries, particularly where time clocks are used, there has been the practice for many years of recording the employees' starting time and stopping time to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour. Presumably, this arrangement averages out so that the employees are fully compensated for all the time they actually work. For enforcement purposes this practice of computing working time will be accepted, provided that it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text...1.2.45.4.440.3

However, your employer can discipline you for being late.

Thank you Betty3, but I'm not sure I understand the answer. It says that they would be allowed to do this because in theory it averages out in the end. How does it average out if the ONLY time this seven minute split is if you punch the clock seven minutes before your shift? It doesn't work in my favor whatsoever. If I punch the clock five minutes after my shift, I don't get paid for those five minutes. The only way it would average out is if I start at 11am and I punch the clock at 11:07, I would then get paid for those seven minutes. I don't. I lose those seven minutes that I am late. But if I punch the clock at 10:53 and begin working, I am working for free for those seven minutes. So my question is, is that legal that they can make me work seven minutes for free, but never pay me for when I am a few minutes late?

What your employer is doing is not legal because it benefits just the employer. You are not being paid for all time worked. You can file a complaint with your state DOL.