Dr. A takes her team to a regional CE event each year. She encourages them to go and pays for their expenses, tuition, etc.

She doesn’t pay their wages while in the course, nor does she pay an hourly rate for travel time. Most employees receive CE credits toward their licenses and certifications.

Dr. A hired a new employee, who went to the next CE event. Subsequently, Dr. A received a wage & hour claim for non-payment of wages and travel pay, which resulted in back-pay for all current & former employees, going back 3 years, plus penalty fines.

Why?

Most employers assume that CE pay is just like any other benefit, where you get to decide who is eligible, what they receive, how much, and so on.

In reality, there are federal wage and hour laws that govern this topic. If you’re curious, it is federal labor code 785.27. The government has four criteria used to determine whether you have to pay wages during the course, applicable hourly travel time, and potentially expenses. In order to not pay for these items, you have to avoid triggering all four of the criteria.

Making course attendance Required or Optional is not the only criteria. While it’s true this is one of the criteria, there are 3 others, including one about whether the training is during the employees regular working hours, and that one trips-up many employers.

Another important note about the optional versus required criteria: the labor code has a provision taking into account how the employees feel about attending the event. So if the employee is led to believe or may feel as though their employment will be adversely affected if they do not attend the event, then in the eyes of the government it is not truly voluntary.

If the doctor encourages the event, such as in the case above, and/or if everyone else is going, then it’s logical the employee would feel they should attend or else they may suffer some sort of adverse consequences.

In addition, employers in California and Washington have additional and more strict requirements. For more information, you can explore a CE episode of The Dental HR Podcast on this topic.