Can teleworkers be non-exempt, hourly employees?
Teleworkers are the same as other employees. They can be paid hourly or can be salaried. Typical teleworker jobs that are hourly include medical transcriptionist, secretary, data entry, and customer service representative. Federal law mandates the reporting of hours worked by non-exempt (hourly) staff for both in-house and telecommuting employees. State law varies on definitions of employee rights and entitlements. All hours worked, including regular pay and overtime hours, must be well documented. It is also important to consider aspects of travel for teleworkers. Hourly employees whose primary office is at home must be paid for the time it takes them to travel to the company’s office. The company is not required to pay that employee for mileage, only for their time, and only if the teleworkers main office is at home. A general rule of thumb is that the primary office is a location where employees work more than 50% of their time. All factor of employment (including hours worked, over
