I work for a small company in Indiana. I have worked for them for 20 years. Recently, they have started to get really tough on me for being late. I am usually 2 or 3 minutes late. :( They have never cared in the past if I was late....alot of times the owner is also late. The manager started docking my pay 15 minutes for being 1 minute late! I found out that our time clock is 3 minutes fast which means that I am really not late at all. I brought this matter to the attention of the owner (about the time clock being 3 minutes fast) and he told me that he didn't give a !@*!, that I better be to work on time and that the time clock could not be fixed! (by the way, the manager, who gets to work 2 hours before the store opens, doesn't clock in at all. She clocks out to go home, but doesn't clock in. How would anyone know if she was late?) Is it legal for them to dock my pay when their time clock is wrong and they wont fix it? In reality, I'm not really late!!!!

First of all, when you own the business, you too can come and go whenever you want. And the manager may very well be exempt and not paid by the hour anyway; the law does not require time reporting of exempt employees. In any case, neither of these circumstances have any bearing on your situation.

You cannot be docked for more time than you miss; however, the employer is allowed to round your in/out times to the nearest 15-minute interval but such rounding must be consistently applied.

Having said this, since you know the time clock is fast, why don't you just account for that and get in 5 minutes "earlier"? Problem solved.

Your other post was deleted because of the language you used.

I'm also wondering why I came in for such a tonguelashing; I didn't even respond to this one until now.

We do not come here to give you the answers you want to hear; we come here to give people the legal answers to their questions. If you don't like the answer, that's too bad, but it's the answer nonetheless. Your employer is not required to allow you to come in late, whatever they consider late. If they want you there at the time as shown on the time clock, then you are late if you are not there by the time shown on the time clock even if the time clock is fast.

That's the answer.