It is the heart of winter and, for some parts of the country,
dangerous snow and ice storms are prevalent. In other areas of the
country, hurricanes, wildfires, and other inclement weather events
have been occurring with more frequency throughout other times of
the year. While it may be rare that an inclement weather event
prevents employees from reporting to work or causes businesses to
close, what if that does happen? Is the time during which employees
were scheduled to be at work but could not be due to poor weather
conditions compensable? That depends.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are
required to pay hourly nonexempt employees only for hours actually
worked. A company therefore is not required to pay hourly,
nonexempt employees for any hours not worked as a result of (i) the
business's opening late due to inclement weather, (ii) the
business's closing early due to inclement weather, or (iii)
the business's remaining open for normal business
