1889: One of the first commercial time clocks from Willard and Harlow Bundy of the Bundy Manufacturing Co. in Binghamton, NY
The Nevada Labor Commissioner recently issued an Advisory Opinion regarding time clock rounding. Â The Commissioner had previously used a very strict interpretation of the wage statute to conclude that any rounding of time entries was unlawful.
In the Advisory Opinion the Commissioner concludes that time clock rounding is appropriate so long as the rounding policy is used in a manner that does not result, over a period of time, in a failure to compensate employees properly for all the time actually worked.
Prior to the issuance of the attached letter the many Nevada employers who use the USDOL rounding rule were theoretically at risk under the Commissioner’s interpretation of Nevada law. Â Although the Advisory Opinion does not bind the courts, I think most courts would find the Commissioner’s rationale to be persuasive.
Employers, (especially large ones), are targets for class action suits over time clock rounding.  Therefore you need to be sure that even if you are rounding under the rule approved by the Commissioner you are doing it correctly—read this article by my partner John Thompson to get more information on how to perform rounding properly.