Home Depot to change pay policy for hourly employees

Home Depot (NASDAQ: HD) will institute a new payroll policy for its hourly associates as of January 16th. Instead of rounding total shift time up or down to the nearest 15 minutes, the company will pay to the nearest minute. This new practice will be implemented nationwide. This change may be in response to lawsuits filed by several employees in recent years accusing the company of consistently rounding down their pay.

According to the According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are allowed to round employee time to the nearest quarter hour. The Act stipulates that one to seven minutes past the quarter hour may be rounded down, and not counted towards the quarter hour. Employee time for eight to 14 minutes past the quarter hour must be rounded up and counted as a quarter hour of worked time.