Q: “Should employees completing new hire paperwork be paid for that time, even if it is before their official start date?” – Geri, Idaho
A: Yes. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay for any time that an individual is “suffered or permitted to work,” and time spent completing paperwork that is necessary to the hire qualifies as compensable work time, as is time spent in orientation and training programs.
See Department of Labor Fact Sheet No. 22 for more information on what qualifies as compensable work time pursuant to the FLSA
(This is from one of those business management training course emails I get, sometimes they come with some really good information. The last one was telling employers that they’re going to lose their employees if they insist on taking away remote work, the one before that was a class about how to fire people on FMLA without getting in trouble. That one didn’t have any good tips for us though.)