I am currently working in Colorado as a manager of a retail sales establishment. My boss has everyone's schedules for the week lined up (all employees are paid hourly). If an employee shows up early for a shift or leaves late, when they are working during the unscheduled time, he will cut that time off of their paycheck (even if it's only 5min). As a manager, I am required to stay after hours for as long as 20min sometimes to take care of counting down registers and other managerial duties. This time is being cut from my paycheck! We have a digital clock in and out system built in to our cash registers, the boss goes in and manually removes this time worked. After some research, I have discovered that according to the DOL (WHD) this time cut is illegal (time suffered or permitted to work), he doesn't inform us when deductions are being made, and he also isn't keeping records of the deductions which is illegal. Almost all of the employees are making minimum wage, which means that by removing these hours he is technically paying them less than minimum wage. The business is also a member of the Better Business Bureau, and I don't know if he is in any violation of their standards. Any suggestions?

File a wage claim with CO DOL for any unpaid wages.

Even though you are a manager, you are paid on an hourly basis also?

The BBB has no interest in employment situations.

Yes, I am paid on an hourly basis as well. There are two day managers and two night managers. The day managers are salaried, and highly compensated I might add (not that that's pertinent, it just frustrates me). And the night managers are hourly ($8/hr). I am a night manager.

Then I agree with DAW. I have to admit when I saw the subject line of your post, I thought you were talking about your scheduled hours being reduced. What you have here is a violation of the FLSA, i.e., not paying for all time worked.

A concern of mine is my inability to document the hours cut. My boss admitted to me that he cuts all employees hours, but there isn't any record of the hours cut. How do I receive compensation for that time when I can't prove how much has been taken from me over the last six months that I've been there?

You don't have to prove what time you worked. Your employer has to prove that you didn't work the time you claim you did.

If you are reporting actual hours worked on your time records, and those are edited before being sent to payroll, the DOL will have a pretty easy time of it. The POS systems I have seen automatically create an audit trail which shows what was changed and who changed it.

Hey everyone, thanks for your advice.