Wage and hour focus article 2: Time Clock Rounding

Time clock rounding thread from 'labor law talk bulletin board'
(http://www.laborlawtalk.com/showthread.php?t=166921)

Clock Rounding in Employer's Favor Iowa (Employee Question)

I know you get this question a lot, but I wanted to ask it to show my employer. My employer has a clock system that rounds to 1/10 hour (6 minutes), always in the employer's favor. For example, if we clock in at 7:55 it rounds to 8:00 and if we clock out at 4:35 it rounds to 4:30. Is this legal? My supervisor (the assistant manager) says that because they give us a 15 minute break morning and afternoon, the rounding doesn't matter because the rounding wouldn't take as much away from us as the breaks that they give us. I think these are two separate things.Is this rounding always in the employer's favor legal?

If not, can you give me "chapter and verse" to cite to them, either from Iowa or US regulations?The one concession I have gotten from them (after pushing hard a couple of years ago) was that if we clock in late but within the first six minutes of our starting time, we only have to work an equivalent number of minutes in the afternoon to make it up rather than having the full unit taken from us.

Laborlawtalk response #1,

I can tell you that it is not legal for rounding to always work in the employer's favor. Rounding is permitted but only if it is done even-handedly; no matter whose favor it works in.However, I will have to let Patty, Robb, Scott or one of the other payroll experts supply the exact links. (It's Federal, btw.)

Laborlawtalk response #2

The following link is to the federal rules. I do not know what rules Iowa has (if any), but state law cannot make the federal rules go away.http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Ti...9CFR785.48.htm