By Bob Paterson Unpaid job training is generally not legal when an employee is required to attend the training or when the training is directly related to the employee’s job. Training time normally counts as working time when the employer requires attendance, schedules the training as part of employment, or uses it to teach employees how to perform their current duties. However, genuinely voluntary training held outside regular working hours can sometimes be unpaid when several legal conditions are satisfied.
What Does Illinois Law Say About Training Time?
Illinois wage law broadly treats time as compensable when an employee is required to be on duty, required to be at the employer’s premises or another prescribed workplace, or permitted to perform work for the employer.
This means an employer cannot simply call required work time “training” to avoid paying wages.
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules also apply to many Illinois employees. Under those rules, lectures, meetings, training programs, and similar activities normally count as hours worked unless the training satisfies a specific exception.
As a practical matter, most ordinary onboarding and job training provided by an employer must be paid.
When Can Training Be Unpaid?
Training can generally be excluded from paid working time only when all four conditions are satisfied:
- The training takes place outside the employee’s normal working hours.
- Attendance is genuinely voluntary.
- The training is not directly related to the employee’s current job.
- The employee performs no productive work during the training.
If even one of these conditions is missing, the training may have to be treated as compensable working time.
For example, requiring a cashier to attend an evening class on the employer’s new checkout system would normally be paid training because attendance is required and the subject directly concerns the cashier’s current job.
Is Mandatory Training Required to Be Paid?
Yes, mandatory training generally must be paid because attendance is not voluntary.
Training is not truly voluntary when an employer directly orders an employee to attend. It may also be considered mandatory when the employer makes employees believe that refusing to attend could affect their job, hours, promotion opportunities, performance review, or continued employment.
An employer therefore cannot necessarily avoid paying for training merely by describing it as “optional” while supervisors expect everyone to attend.
Required safety training, orientation sessions, company procedures, equipment instruction, and similar job-related training will ordinarily count as hours worked.
Does Online Training Have to Be Paid?
Online training can also be compensable.
The fact that an employee completes a training program from home rather than at the workplace does not automatically make the time unpaid.
If an employer requires an employee to complete an online training module about workplace policies, job procedures, safety requirements, customer service, equipment, or another subject related to the person’s current job, the time normally must be recorded as working time.
This remains true even when the employer tells the employee to complete the course after the employee’s normal shift.
Can an Employer Require Unpaid Training Before the First Day?
Calling something “pre-employment training” does not automatically make it lawful to withhold wages.
If a person has effectively been hired and is required to attend orientation or training before beginning ordinary duties, the time may qualify as compensable work.
The situation becomes even clearer when the person performs productive tasks for the business during the supposed training period.
A company cannot generally require a newly hired employee to work several unpaid shifts merely to learn the job and then begin paying wages afterward.
Whether someone is legally an employee depends on the actual relationship and work performed, not simply on labels such as “trainee” or “candidate.”
Can Illinois Employers Pay a Lower Training Wage?
Illinois has special rules concerning learners, but these rules do not create a general right to provide unpaid training.
A learner is someone participating in a bona fide training program for the occupation in which the person is employed.
Illinois permits certain employers to pay qualifying learners less than the ordinary minimum wage only under the state’s learner rules and licensing requirements. Even then, Illinois law provides that a learner generally cannot be paid less than 70% of the applicable adult minimum wage.
An employer therefore cannot simply declare every new employee a trainee and pay nothing during the first week.
The learner period is also generally limited to six months unless the Illinois Department of Labor determines that the occupation genuinely requires a longer training period.
What if Training Causes an Employee to Work More Than 40 Hours?
Training time that legally qualifies as hours worked generally counts toward the employee’s weekly hours.
For a nonexempt employee, this can affect overtime.
If an employee works 38 regular hours and then attends four hours of required job training during the same workweek, the compensable total may be 42 hours.
Illinois generally requires eligible employees to receive overtime compensation at one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
Employers therefore cannot normally exclude mandatory training hours simply to avoid overtime.
Are Unpaid Internships the Same as Unpaid Training?
No, unpaid internships involve a different legal analysis.
For-profit employers may sometimes have legitimate unpaid student internships when the intern, rather than the business, is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement.
Relevant factors include whether the internship resembles educational training, is connected with an academic program, accommodates the student’s academic schedule, provides significant educational benefits, and does not simply replace work that would otherwise be performed by paid employees.
Calling an ordinary entry-level worker an “intern” does not automatically remove minimum-wage requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Can an employer make you watch training videos at home without pay?
Usually not when the videos are required and relate to the employee’s current job. Required online training can constitute working time even when completed away from the workplace.
Q2. Can a company refuse to pay for a working interview?
A genuine interview involving observation or limited skills evaluation can differ from employment, but requiring an applicant to perform productive work that benefits the business can raise wage-law issues. Employers cannot safely avoid wage requirements merely by labeling actual work a “working interview.”
Q3. Can an employee agree to attend mandatory training without pay?
An employee generally cannot waive statutory minimum-wage and overtime protections simply by agreeing with the employer that legally compensable working time will be unpaid.
Q4. What can an Illinois employee do if required training was unpaid?
An employee may raise the issue with the employer or file a wage complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor. Depending on the circumstances, federal wage-and-hour remedies may also be available through the U.S. Department of Labor.