I work for a chiropractic clinic. We have approx 10 employees & the business manager (who is married to the main dr. who owns the majority of the clinic) insists we not be paid overtime. He states if we punch in early in the morning (no matter how early) we will be paid at our "start time" only--even if we are working. At nights, if we are required to be the "late person"---(basically staying to lock up, make sure all patients are gone) we will not be paid overtime for that either. It would be "comped" the next week. We get paid on the 1st & 16th each month. It has been quite a subject b/w all office staff that this practice is not legal. We are always paid 80 hours each pay period & have to "lose" the additional hours (if there was actually any overtime accumulated during the week) the following week-after the pay period has been completed.

Also, if we are required by them to travel to a different state for a training class specific to developing chiropractic assistants are we supposed to be reimbursed for that? The typical scenario is to leave our town on a Friday afternoon, drive to Minneapolis, MN or Kansas City, MO. They do pay for meals & we are driven there (typically by the head dr). We are paid for Saturday when we sit in class (8 hours) but they consider the Sunday classes to be a "bonus" and we are expected to sit thru those for free. Basically they "require" us to attend at least 3/4 times per year but would prefer us to attend all. When I was hired I was told some travel maybe required but not to the extent of giving up my weekends & not being reimbursed for my time.

I did question the "business manager" on this, too, and was assured they have checked with the state of South Dakota & it is all legal.

Please advise!!!

I assume you and most of your co-workers are non-exempt (hourly paid) employees, in which case you MUST be paid time and a-half for all hours worked in each fixed 7-day pay period. "Comping" employees with compensatory time off the following week is absolutely prohibited.

Federal laws regarding the payment of travel time are a bit confusing and your State may well have it's own set of travel pay requirements. When you call your State's Department of Labor to file a complaint about the overtime pay violation, discuss the requirements for travel time pay as well.