by Cynthia Deaton

A few TL’s have asked us how to calculate hours paid for their managers and stylists who attend the Huddle. When you have hourly team members, here is some input from Pinnacle’s HR Department: Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is clearly paid work time when it cuts across the employee’s usual workday. The employee is simply substituting travel for other duties. The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during the corresponding hours on nonworking days. Thus, if an employee regularly works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday the travel time during these hours is work time on Saturday and Sunday as well as on the other days. Regular meal period is not counted. As an enforcement policy, some government agencies will not consider work time as that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile. Some State laws can vary from the Federal guidelines. Review State requirements to see if your State has any that would differ.

The challenging part is that Store Managers usually don’t work set hours and set days; so you are best to pay for a full workday when they travel. If your manager is traveling on a Saturday, a valuable suggestion would be to pay them for a full day for the travel time. Travel time can be paid at a lower rate than their pay rate, as long as they are aware of it in advance. Overtime will apply. Along with the Huddle, any required activities, which would include any mandatory dinners or team events would all be considered paid time at your Manager’s regular rate of pay. Voluntary activities, time on their own, and resting time are not paid time. For more information, contact Cynthia Deaton at (210) 344-2088 or cynthiadeaton@pinnaclepeo.com.