[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 29, Volume 3]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 29CFR785.47]



[Page 651]

 

                             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 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.