Definition: Call-in pay (reporting time pay, or show-up pay) is a payment made to an employee who reports to work as scheduled, or is called in, but is sent home before working the expected hours, or whose shift is cancelled or cut short.
With EZTime time-off requests, employees ask for PTO from their phone and managers approve it in one place.
Hourly employees build their week around the schedule they receive. When someone commutes to work, arranges childcare, and then is told after 45 minutes that business is slow and they should go home, they lose most of the pay they expected. Call-in pay, also called reporting time pay, compensates employees for that lost time. It is sometimes required by state or local law, sometimes required by a union contract, and sometimes offered voluntarily as a fair-scheduling practice.
The term is also used loosely for related payments, such as pay when an employee is unexpectedly called back after a shift. It is worth keeping them separate because federal rules treat them slightly differently.
The FLSA requires payment for hours actually worked, including time on the premises waiting to be put to work. DOL Fact Sheet #22 explains that an employee “engaged to wait” is working. The FLSA does not, however, generally require payment for time not worked. The DOL’s holiday pay page states that the FLSA “does not require payment for time not worked,” and the federal law contains no general reporting time requirement. As a result, any obligation to pay for the remainder of a cancelled or shortened shift usually comes from state or local law, a contract, or company policy.
Federal law does govern how call-in pay affects overtime. DOL Fact Sheet #56A explains that show-up or reporting pay compensates an employee who reports as scheduled but is sent home early, and that it may be excluded from the regular rate provided it is made on an infrequent and sporadic basis. Call-back pay may be excluded from the regular rate provided the call-back was not prearranged. DOL Fact Sheet #56B adds that pay for hours actually worked must be included, and that excludable penalty payments cannot be credited toward overtime owed under the FLSA.
Hypothetical: A retail employee earns $16.00 an hour and is scheduled for an 8-hour shift. Because of a storm, the manager sends her home after 2 hours. Assume a policy that guarantees half of the scheduled shift when an employee is sent home early.
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Hours actually worked | 2 × $16.00 | $32.00 |
| Guaranteed minimum (half of 8 hours) | 4 hours | — |
| Reporting time pay for unworked hours | (4 − 2) × $16.00 | $32.00 |
| Total pay for the day | $32.00 + $32.00 | $64.00 |
For overtime purposes, the 2 hours worked count as hours worked. The 2 unworked hours paid as reporting time are not hours worked. If this payment is infrequent and sporadic, DOL guidance indicates it can be excluded from the regular rate, but it cannot be credited against any overtime owed for the week.
Several states and cities have reporting time or scheduling laws, and requirements differ widely. One example is Oregon’s predictive scheduling law. According to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, the law covers employers with at least 500 employees worldwide in the retail, hospitality, or food services industries. When covered employers change schedules without the required advance notice, employees are owed one-half times the regular rate for each scheduled hour lost due to cancellations, shortened shifts, or unused on-call shifts. Changes the employee requests in writing do not trigger the extra pay.
Other jurisdictions use different formulas, such as a minimum number of hours or a fraction of the scheduled shift. Because coverage depends on industry, employer size, and location, check the current rules for every site where you schedule employees. See fair workweek laws for more on scheduling laws.
| Payment | Triggered by | Federal regular-rate treatment (DOL) |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting / show-up pay | Employee reports and is sent home or given reduced hours | May be excluded if infrequent and sporadic |
| Call-back pay | Employee is called back to work outside normal hours | May be excluded if the call-back was not prearranged |
| On-call pay under a scheduling law | Employee on an on-call shift is not called in | Must be included in the regular rate (Fact Sheet #56B) |
The cheapest reporting pay is the payment you never have to make. Most early send-homes trace back to schedules built on habit rather than demand. Review a few weeks of sales, traffic, or patient volume by hour and compare it with how many people were scheduled. If Tuesday afternoons are routinely overstaffed, fix the template instead of sending people home each week. Build a small list of employees who want extra hours so you can add coverage late rather than over-scheduling early, and, in jurisdictions with standby or voluntary-list rules, follow the written-consent requirements.
When a cancellation is unavoidable, such as a power outage or severe weather, communicate quickly through the channel employees actually check, record the time of the notice, and apply the same pay rule to everyone affected. Consistency protects both employee trust and your position if the payment is questioned later.
Fewer surprise send-homes start with better schedules. EZTime’s AI shift scheduling and shift templates help match staffing to demand, shift swaps with approval let employees adjust without last-minute cancellations, and employees see their shifts in the app. Actual hours are captured with the GPS mobile time clock with geofencing, NFC tags, tablet kiosk, or biometric clocks, timecard corrections keep an audit trail of changes, and payroll-ready Excel/PDF exports for any payroll software keep hours worked separate from other pay. See the scheduling software and pricing, from $2/employee/month with a 14-day trial.
This is general information, not legal advice.
The FLSA generally requires pay only for hours worked and, according to the DOL, does not require payment for time not worked. Reporting pay obligations usually come from state or local laws, contracts, or company policy.
Hours actually worked count. DOL says show-up pay for unworked time may be excluded from the regular rate if paid infrequently and sporadically, and excludable penalty payments cannot be credited toward FLSA overtime owed.
Call-in or reporting pay applies when an employee reports for a scheduled shift and is sent home. Call-back pay applies when an employee is called back to work outside normal hours.
It depends on location and industry. For example, Oregon’s predictive scheduling law covers retail, hospitality, and food service employers with at least 500 employees worldwide.