***TRAINING and employee pay issues***

From: Cara Levinson
Email: CaraBLevinson@aol.com
Date: February 08, 2005

Comments

The following important discussion was prompted by two factors: (1) Deb Lynch's second "overtime" message on February 7 (please review it) and (2) a seminar I presented last fall for Illinois' Preschool Owners' Association. Apparently, there is a fair amount of confusion among daycare/preschool directors -- in both Illinois and Wisconsin -- as to their centers' wage obligations for staff training. I hope that I can add a bit of clarity to this issue.

In a nutshell, under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), only training unrelated to the job and of no benefit to the employer can be considered the employee's obligation. (I am simplifying this, but that's the basic rule.) This means that where training is related to the job and is a benefit to the employer, the hours spent in the training are considered "hours worked" and must be paid BY THE EMPLOYER at the employee's hourly rate, not at some arbitrary "training rate" (of $1.00 or whatever).

It is patently clear under Illinois law that the yearly continuing education training for childcare workers that is required in that state is both related to the job and benefits the employer. In fact, in Illinois a center/preschool cannot maintain its license if its employees do not have such continuing education credits. Yes, yes, I know that the employee also benefits by the training, but that is not the consideration under the FLSA as to whether the training time qualifies as "hours worked." The owner of three childcare centers in downstate Illinois recently had to settle with the Illinois Department of Labor for back wages for failure to pay her employees for the time they spent in continuing education.

I have examined the licensing requirements in Wisconsin group child care centers (Chapter HRS 46) and my educated guess is that this state's statutes require a similar result. While I am not as familiar with Wisconsin law, it seems clear that to maintain compliance with licensing standards, child care employees must engage in continuing education. This means that the centers are obligated to pay employees for the time that they spend in such training, again, at their usual hourly rate.

There is no requirement under either Illinois or Wisconsin state law that employers pay for the actual cost of the training, although many employers do.

For everyone's benefit, the term "training rate" or "training wage" does not apply to this situation. Basically, a training wage is a wage lower than the benchmark-hiring minimum for a job. The training wage may be used to offer in certain other industries to provide an employee the opportunity to qualify for a position for which he/she does not have the necessary experience or qualifications. I don't believe it is applicable to the childcare center/preschool industry since employees must already possess specific experience/education levels prior to employment.

Any questions?