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Published by J9 Systems. What's new in business tech, and what it means for yours.

From the brief of Friday, October 23, 2026 · No. 12

From the daily brief · Policy

DOL: New Jersey drywall firm owes $725K for 48 workers' unpaid pre-shift time

If your crews load trucks or wait at the shop before clocking in, the Labor Department just showed what that unpaid time can cost.

By Carter Josephson · · 2 min read

What happened

On Oct. 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a consent judgment in federal court requiring New Jersey drywall installer P & B Partitions Inc. to pay $725,000 in back wages, damages and civil money penalties to 48 workers. The Wage and Hour Division found the company did not pay employees for pre-shift work while they waited for transportation to jobsites, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions.

What it means for a 10-to-50-person business

The DOL's headline says $700K and its text says $725,000; the split between wages, damages and penalties is not given. The risk is the morning gap. Crews meet at the shop, load materials, wait for the truck, and the clock starts at the jobsite. Take an 18-person remodeling contractor with 12 field staff at $28/hr who already work 40-hour weeks. Twenty unpaid minutes a morning is overtime at $42/hr. That is $14 per worker per day. Over 240 workdays it comes to $3,360 per worker and about $40,000 a year for the crew. The FLSA lets workers recover two years of back pay, or three if the violation is willful, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. Two years in this example is about $161,000 before penalties and legal fees. This matters to any trade that musters at a yard or shop. Firms whose crews drive straight from home to the site, with no shop stop, can mostly ignore it.

What to do
Try it

This month, pull two weeks of time records and compare each field worker's first clock-in with when they actually arrive at the shop or yard (gate logs, GPS, the morning group text), and if there is a gap, either move the clock-in point to arrival or stop pre-departure tasks.

What it costs
What it costs
Audit, 2 weeks of time cards for 12 field staff
2 hrs (≈ $100 at $50/hr)
Moving clock-in to shop arrival in your field app
$0 on most plans; ≈ 1 hr setup
Paying 20 min/day pre-shift as overtime, 12 workers × $42/hr × 240 days
≈ $40,320/yr
Alternative: crews report straight to site, no shop tasks
$0 wages; some routing and material-staging changes
One-hour call with an employment lawyer to check your setup
assume $300–$500
Doing nothing
$0 now; in this example, exposure of ≈ $161,000 (2 years' back pay plus equal liquidated damages), more if found willful, plus penalties
Sources
dol.gov (primary) · DOL Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the FLSA

Questions owners ask

Is waiting for the truck always paid time?

Not always. Under the FLSA's continuous-workday principle, once an employee does the first required task of the day, such as loading materials or picking up assignments, the time after that generally counts, including waiting and riding to the site. Ask an employment lawyer how it applies to your setup.

How far back can the Labor Department go?

Two years of back wages, or three if the violation is willful. Liquidated damages equal to the back wages are usually added, which doubles the bill. Civil money penalties can come on top.

Will my field-service app catch this?

Only if workers clock in when they arrive at the shop. Most field apps record whatever clock-in point you set. If yours starts the clock at the first job, the app will not show the gap.

Three to five of these, every weekday morning.

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