# Time and Wage-Hour Glossary

> 37 terms from the Workforce book's Time and Wage-Hour part, each defined in a line and linked to the chapter that explains it.

- **Break attestation:** the worker's own answer at clock-out about whether a required meal or rest break was provided, recorded on their device and used to decide whether a California premium is owed ([Breaks, Premiums & Attestations](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/breaks-and-premiums#attestations-and-waivers)).
- **Buddy punching:** one worker clocking in or out for another, countered by identification at the clock (PIN, badge, photo, biometric) and by checking punches against the schedule ([Clocks, Kiosks, Geofences & Biometrics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-clocks-and-biometrics#buddy-punching)).
- **Cash wage (tipped):** the wage an employer pays a tipped employee in cash before counting tips; at least $2.13 an hour under the FLSA, higher or the full minimum in many states ([Tipped Employees](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/tipped-employees#the-tip-credit)).
- **Clopening:** a closing shift followed by an opening shift with too short a rest between them; fair workweek laws in Oregon and Seattle require 10 hours or pay time and a half for hours inside the window ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#oregon-and-seattle)).
- **Daily overtime:** overtime owed for hours over a daily threshold (8 in California, Alaska and, for lower-paid employees, Nevada), in addition to weekly overtime ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#state-daily-and-seventh-day-overtime)).
- **De minimis rule:** the federal rule that insubstantial periods of a few seconds or minutes that can't practically be recorded may be disregarded, never fixed or regularly required time; California doesn't apply it to regular off-the-clock minutes ([The Workweek & the Time Record](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-and-attendance#hours-worked)).
- **Discretionary bonus:** a bonus whose payment and amount the employer decides at or near the end of the period with no prior promise, excludable from the regular rate under FLSA section 7(e)(3) ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#the-regular-rate)).
- **Dual jobs:** employment in a tipped and a non-tipped occupation by the same employee; no tip credit may be taken for hours in the non-tipped job ([Tipped Employees](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/tipped-employees#dual-jobs-and-the-80-20-history)).
- **Fair workweek law:** a state or city law requiring advance schedules, good-faith hour estimates, rest between shifts and predictability pay for late changes, for covered retail, food service and hospitality employers ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#what-the-laws-regulate)).
- **Final pay:** the wages due when employment ends, payable on a deadline set by state law by separation type and notice, from immediately in California to the end of the pay period in Washington ([Pay Frequency, Pay Statements & Final Pay](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/pay-frequency-statements-and-final-pay#final-pay)).
- **Fluctuating workweek:** paying a nonexempt employee a fixed salary for all hours in weeks that vary, plus half the week's regular rate for each overtime hour, under 29 CFR 778.114 ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#flsa-overtime)).
- **Geofence:** a boundary around a work location used to flag or block mobile punches made outside it ([Clocks, Kiosks, Geofences & Biometrics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-clocks-and-biometrics#mobile-and-geofenced-punches)).
- **Good-faith estimate:** a written estimate given at hire under fair workweek laws of the hours a worker can expect (median monthly hours in Oregon) and whether on-call shifts are expected ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#what-the-laws-regulate)).
- **Highly compensated employee (HCE, FLSA):** an employee with total annual compensation of at least $107,432, including $684 a week in salary, exempt from overtime if they regularly perform one exempt duty ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#exemptions-and-the-salary-level)).
- **Hours worked:** the time an employer must pay for under wage-hour law, including work suffered or permitted, waiting when engaged to wait, short rest breaks and some travel ([The Workweek & the Time Record](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-and-attendance#hours-worked)).
- **Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA):** the Illinois law requiring written notice, a written release and a public retention policy before collecting biometric identifiers, with $1,000 or $5,000 in liquidated damages per violation ([Clocks, Kiosks, Geofences & Biometrics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-clocks-and-biometrics#biometric-clocks-and-illinois-bipa)).
- **Major fraction:** in California rest period rules, any part of a four-hour work period over two hours, which earns another ten-minute rest period ([Breaks, Premiums & Attestations](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/breaks-and-premiums#california-rest-periods)).
- **Manual worker (New York):** a worker in New York whose physical labor makes them subject to weekly pay within seven days of the week's end under Labor Law 191 ([Pay Frequency, Pay Statements & Final Pay](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/pay-frequency-statements-and-final-pay#pay-frequency)).
- **Meal and rest premium (California):** one additional hour of pay at the regular rate of compensation for each workday a compliant meal, rest or recovery period isn't provided, paid as wages under Labor Code 226.7 ([Breaks, Premiums & Attestations](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/breaks-and-premiums#the-premium)).
- **Minimum wage adjustment:** the make-up earning paid when a workweek's creditable wages fall short of the applicable minimum for its hours ([Minimum Wage as Data](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/minimum-wage-as-data#the-minimum-wage-check)).
- **Predictability pay:** premium pay a fair workweek law requires for employer changes to a posted schedule inside the notice period, excluded from the FLSA regular rate ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#premiums-as-earning-codes)).
- **PUMP Act:** the 2022 law extending FLSA break time and private space for nursing employees to express milk for up to one year after a child's birth ([Breaks, Premiums & Attestations](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/breaks-and-premiums#lactation-breaks)).
- **Raw punch:** a clock event exactly as captured, kept beside any rounded or edited time so pay can be recomputed ([The Workweek & the Time Record](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-and-attendance#raw-punches-and-rounding)).
- **Regular rate:** all compensation for a workweek except the FLSA section 7(e) exclusions, divided by all hours worked; overtime is owed at one and a half times it ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#the-regular-rate)).
- **Reporting time pay:** California's pay of half the scheduled day, between 2 and 4 hours, for an employee who reports for a shift and is given less than half of it ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#premiums-as-earning-codes)).
- **Retro overtime:** extra overtime premium owed for past workweeks when a bonus or commission earned in them is later apportioned back, under 29 CFR 778.209 ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#bonuses-and-retro-overtime)).
- **Rounding (time clock):** recording punches to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes, allowed federally only if it doesn't underpay over time and barred for meal punches in California ([The Workweek & the Time Record](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-and-attendance#raw-punches-and-rounding)).
- **Salary level (exempt):** the minimum salary for the FLSA white-collar exemptions, $684 a week in the regulations as of November 2026, and higher under state laws such as California's two times the state minimum wage ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#exemptions-and-the-salary-level)).
- **Seventh-day overtime:** California's time and a half for the first 8 hours and double time beyond 8 on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#state-daily-and-seventh-day-overtime)).
- **Tip credit:** the part of the minimum wage an employer may satisfy with an employee's tips, up to $5.12 an hour under the FLSA and limited to tips actually received, with notice; banned in several states ([Tipped Employees](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/tipped-employees#the-tip-credit)).
- **Tip pool:** a mandatory sharing of tips among employees; with a tip credit only among customarily tipped employees (traditional), without one possibly including others paid the full minimum (nontraditional), never managers or the employer ([Tipped Employees](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/tipped-employees#tip-pools-and-the-manager-rule)).
- **Tipped employee:** an employee in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips under the FLSA ([Tipped Employees](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/tipped-employees#who-is-a-tipped-employee)).
- **Voluntary standby list:** under Oregon's predictive scheduling law, workers who agree in writing to be offered extra hours, which earn no change premium when accepted ([Fair Workweek & Scheduling Laws](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/scheduling-laws#oregon-and-seattle)).
- **Wage statement:** the itemized statement given with each payment of wages, with contents set by state law such as California Labor Code 226(a) and New York Labor Law 195(3) ([Pay Frequency, Pay Statements & Final Pay](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/pay-frequency-statements-and-final-pay#pay-statements)).
- **Waiting time penalty:** California's penalty for willfully late final pay, the employee's daily wages for each day late up to 30 days, under Labor Code 203 ([Pay Frequency, Pay Statements & Final Pay](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/pay-frequency-statements-and-final-pay#waiting-time-penalties)).
- **Weighted average regular rate:** the regular rate of an employee who works at two or more rates in a workweek, total earnings divided by total hours ([Overtime & the Regular Rate](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/overtime-and-the-regular-rate#two-rates-in-one-week)).
- **Workweek:** the fixed, regularly recurring 168-hour period an employer sets for each employee, the unit for FLSA overtime and minimum wage ([The Workweek & the Time Record](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workforce/time-and-attendance#the-workweek)).

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