[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR785.47]

[Page 698-699]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 785_HOURS WORKED--Table of Contents
 
                    Subpart D_Recording Working Time
 
Sec. 785.47  Where records show insubstantial or insignificant periods 
of time.

    In recording working time under the Act, insubstantial or 
insignificant periods of time beyond the scheduled working hours, which 
cannot as a practical administrative matter be precisely recorded for 
payroll purposes, may be disregarded. The courts have held that such 
trifles are de minimis. (Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 
680 (1946)) This rule applies only where there are uncertain and 
indefinite periods of time involved of a few seconds or

[[Page 699]]

minutes duration, and where the failure to count such time is due to 
considerations justified by industrial realities. An employer may not 
arbitrarily fail to count as hours worked any part, however small, of 
the employee's fixed or regular working time or practically 
ascertainable period of time he is regularly required to spend on duties 
assigned to him. See Glenn L. Martin Nebraska Co. v. Culkin, 197 F. 2d 
981, 987 (C.A. 8, 1952), cert. denied, 344 U.S. 866 (1952), rehearing 
denied, 344 U.S. 888 (1952), holding that working time amounting to $1 
of additional compensation a week is ``not a trivial matter to a 
workingman,'' and was not de minimis; Addison v. Huron Stevedoring 
Corp., 204 F. 2d 88, 95 (C.A. 2, 1953), cert. denied 346 U.S. 877, 
holding that ``To disregard workweeks for which less than a dollar is 
due will produce capricious and unfair results.'' Hawkins v. E. I. du 
Pont de Nemours & Co., 12 W.H. Cases 448, 27 Labor Cases, para. 69,094 
(E.D. Va., 1955), holding that 10 minutes a day is not de minimis.