Paying employees that don't clock in. Illinois

[jmv75]

I have a problem with tracking which employees were onsite or not during payroll period.

if they don't clock in, and don't tell somebody, do I have to pay them?

as in.. If I don't know if they were there or not, what do I do?

I'm 100% willing to pay them for hours after the fact, but if they don't say something, am I liable?

is there an Illinois law about this?

Thanks!
-J

[cbg]

There is a Federal law about this.

If they worked and you know it, you have to pay them. No ifs, ands or buts. They can be disciplined in other ways for not completing their time cards, but that discipline cannot take the form of not being paid.

If you don't know if they were there, can you call the supervisor or manager and find out?

[jmv75]

this is a small business, so we only sometimes have 2 or 3 people there. If I see them there, or know that they're there, I clock them in myself...

if we're not there, I guess the answer is that I have to police them to know if they came in or not?

-J

[cbg]

The law says you have to pay them if you know they're there.

If you legitimately don't know if they're there or not, I don't know of any law that says you have to pay them for time they may or may not have worked.

[Pattymd]

The law says you have to pay them if you know they're there.

Or if you're supposed to know they're there. The FLSA assumes the employer knows or should know what their employees are working.

[DAW]

Companies I have worked for make employees prepare and sign timesheets for this reason. The same companies generally also have policies that employees caught falsifying timesheets will be fired. And not surprisingly, fire a person or two for falsifying timesheets and the problem magically goes away.

As stated, employers must pay non-exempt employees based on actual hours worked, and that the legal burden of tracking time worked is on the employer, not the employee. Time clocks are ok, but saying that the time clock (or the employee) made a mistake is not a legally adequate defense as far as the employer is concerned. If there are only 2-3 employees, how hard can it be to get the employees to review the time card, correct if needed and sign it? And if the employees are working un-approved overtime, how hard can it be for the employer to tell them to stop?