As general matter the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”) requires employers to compensate employees for all the time employees have worked no matter where and when the work is done. However, an exception exists called the De Minimis Doctrine which permits employers not to pay employees when employees spend a small amount of time on tasks that by their nature are difficult for the employer to track or record. Specifically, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) codified the De Minimis defense in 29 C.F.R. § 785.47 which in pertinent part reads:
In recording working time under the Act, insubstantial or insignificant periods of time beyond the scheduled working hours, which cannot as a practical administrative matter be precisely recorded for payroll purposes, may be disregarded. The courts have held that such trifles are de minimis. Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680 (1946). This rule applies only where there are uncertain and indefinite periods of time involved of a few seconds or minutes duration, and where the failure to count such time is due to considerations justified by industrial realities. An employer may not arbitrarily fail to count as hours worked any part, however small, of the employee’s fixed or regular working time or practically ascertainable period of time he is regularly required to spend on duties assigned to him. Glenn L. Martin Nebraska Co. v. Culkin, 197 F. 2d 981, 987, (C.A. 8, 1952)
(emphasis added)