Mandatory Training Can Be Work Time: A $113K Reminder for Employers

Mandatory orientation. Required staff meetings. Online training completed after hours. These activities can feel like routine HR administration, but they can also create significant wage-and-hour exposure when nonexempt employees are not paid for the time.

On August 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that an investigation of an urgent care employer found workers had not been properly compensated for required orientation, meetings, and training. According to the DOL, the violations resulted in more than $113,000 in wages owed to employees, including overtime when the additional time pushed employees beyond 40 hours in a workweek.

The lesson for employers is bigger than this one investigation: If an activity is required, employers should generally assume the time is compensable unless there is a clear legal basis for excluding it.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, training, lectures, and meetings may be excluded from hours worked only when all four conditions are satisfied: attendance occurs outside normal working hours, attendance is voluntary, the activity is not directly related to the employee’s job, and the employee performs no productive work during the activity.

That “voluntary” requirement matters. Calling something a training opportunity does not make it voluntary if employees are told they must attend, need the training to remain employed, or could face consequences for skipping it.

Best Practices for Employers

Start by looking beyond the timeclock. HR and payroll should identify every place where employees may be performing required work that does not automatically flow into payroll. That includes learning management systems, Zoom trainings, pre-shift huddles, required certifications, orientation sessions, safety meetings, compliance courses, and meetings held on an employee’s day off.

Next, build a process that captures the time. If employees complete online training remotely, for example, they need a simple way to record it. Managers should also understand that telling an employee, “Just knock this training out tonight,” may create compensable time—and potentially overtime.

Employers should also avoid policies that prohibit unauthorized overtime without distinguishing between paying for overtime and disciplining employees for violating scheduling rules. If the employer knows or has reason to know the employee worked, the time generally must be recorded and paid even if the employee was not supposed to work it.

What Employers Should Do Next

Conduct a “hidden work” audit. Compare training records, meeting calendars, orientation schedules, certification programs, and other mandatory activities against timekeeping records for nonexempt employees.

Pay special attention to weeks in which an employee was already close to 40 hours. Thirty minutes of unpaid training may look small until it happens repeatedly—or converts straight-time wages into overtime liability.

Finally, give managers one simple rule: If we require it, HR or payroll needs to know about the time.

Wage-and-hour problems rarely begin with someone deliberately deciding not to pay employees. More often, they begin with a process nobody thought to connect to payroll. And unfortunately, “we didn’t think about it” is not much of a compliance strategy.