We offer insurance to eligible employees. Do we have to pay employees who go to the enrollment meetings. Employee comes in clocks in for the meeting then clocks out.

Ann Kiernan replies:

Probably not.

29 C.F.R. § 785.27 says:

Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time if the following four criteria are met:

(a) Attendance is outside of the employee's regular working hours;

(b) Attendance is in fact voluntary;

(c) The course, lecture, or meeting is not directly related to the employee's job; and

(d) The employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance.

It sounds like this is outside of working hours, so (a) and (d) are satisfied. If the benefits are optional, that should take care of (b), and benefits are probably not directly related to the employee's job. However, we could find no case on the subject, so you should get an outside legal opinion - or just pay the employees for the time and chalk it up to good employee relations.