Question: Our employees often don’t turn their timesheets in on time. If an employee doesn’t submit his sheet on time, can we delay processing his paycheck until the next pay period?

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Answer: Getting employees to turn timesheets in on time can be challenging. It is the employer’s obligation to pay employees on the established payday, regardless of whether a timecard has been submitted. There is no exception to the law that allows an employer to withhold payment until the next payday or until the timecard has been turned in. When you don’t have a timecard, you can comply with the law by paying all of the wages that you reasonably know are due for an employee’s regularly scheduled work period. Straight time pay cannot be delayed.

Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must also be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned. You may only delay payment for overtime wages that can’t be determined until after the regular pay period.

The delayed payment of overtime wages earned in one payroll period must generally be no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period.

A proactive way to address this issue is to have a clear policy and procedure on reporting hours worked, including the deadlines. Training your non- exempt staff and supervisors on the expectations for accurately completing time reporting records is key to ensuring that you are complying with wage payment requirements. As a last resort, you can treat the issue as a disciplinary issue should it continue even after expectations have been clearly communicated, but holding the paycheck as a method to gain compliance could subject your company to potential wage claims for unpaid wages.