Reporting time pay: what a driver is owed when you cancel the shift or send them home early

What is reporting time pay?

Reporting time pay is a guaranteed minimum for a driver who shows up for a scheduled shift and is then sent home or given too little work. It tops the day up to the amount the rule sets, so a driver who worked 90 minutes of a cancelled shift is paid the full guarantee, not 90 minutes. Federal law has no reporting-pay rule. The Labor Department’s wage and hour FAQ says the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked. A few states and the District of Columbia do.

Waiting is a separate question. A driver standing at a door for a rider who never comes out is working under the federal hours-worked rules, and the no-show pay guide covers that. This page is about the shift that disappears: the standing order a broker cancels overnight, or the clinic block that closes while your driver is already on the road.

Which states require reporting time pay?

California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia each have a rule that reaches a ride company. Here is what each one requires as of October 2026.

The rate differs more than the hours. California, New Hampshire and Rhode Island use the driver’s regular rate. New York pays the basic minimum wage, which is $17.00 in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties and $16.00 elsewhere in the state for 2026, so a well-paid driver collects less than their usual hourly rate. Massachusetts sets a floor at the basic minimum wage. New Jersey’s rule says “the applicable wage rate” and nothing more. The District of Columbia pays the regular rate for the hours worked and the minimum wage for the rest.

Connecticut is not on the list for ride companies. Its retail wage order guarantees four hours of earnings and its restaurant and hotel restaurant order guarantees two, but neither covers a ride company, and the general regulations the Labor Department posts for every other industry carry no reporting-pay section. If your state is not listed, ask its labor department whether an industry wage order adds a rule.

What counts as reporting, and how do you avoid owing it?

A driver has reported when they come in at your request or with your permission. Telling a driver before they leave home is the simplest way to keep a cancelled shift from becoming a reporting day.

• California. The Labor Commissioner lists what triggers the rule: appearing at the workplace at the start of the shift, logging on remotely, appearing at a client’s job site, setting out on a trucking route, or telephoning the store two hours before the shift, as in a 2019 appeals court case, Ward v. Tilly’s. A rule that drivers must phone dispatch two hours ahead to learn whether they are needed fits that last pattern. Being sent home for poor performance does not erase the pay, but a worker who leaves on their own, to care for a sick child for example, is not owed it.
• New Hampshire. An employer that makes a good faith effort to tell the worker not to report owes nothing. If the worker comes in anyway after a failed attempt, the worker does whatever duties the employer assigns at that point.
• New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. Each rule is written around an employee who reports at the employer’s request, permission, instruction or set time. Massachusetts adds that the employee must have been scheduled for three hours or more.

In California, a driver who has already set out on a route has reported. The notice that matters is the one that reaches the driver before they start.

Who is covered, and who is not?

Reporting-pay rules protect employees, so the first question is whether the driver is one. A true independent contractor is outside them, but a driver who works the shifts you set, in your van, on your dispatcher’s instructions is often an employee whatever the paperwork says. The classification guide walks through the tests.

Some employees are carved out:

• California. Wage Order 9 does not apply its section 5 to administrative, executive and professional employees, or to employees of the state, a city or a county. The reporting rule also skips a worker on a regularly scheduled shift of under two hours.
• New Hampshire. County and municipal employees are excluded.
• Massachusetts. Organizations with charitable status under the Internal Revenue Code are excluded, which matters for a nonprofit ride program.
• Rhode Island and New Jersey. Both let an employer and employee agree on a short or minimum-hours schedule in advance. Rhode Island lets shifts under three hours stand when both sides agree voluntarily, and New Jersey excuses the employer that made the agreed hours available.

What happens when a broker cancels a standing order or a dialysis block?

If the driver has reported, the cancellation does not remove the guarantee. If the driver was told in time, there is nothing to pay. Here is an example with made-up numbers. A driver paid $24 an hour is scheduled from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. As the driver reports at 6:00, dispatch learns the broker has cancelled the standing dialysis block that filled the morning, and sends the driver home with no other work.

• California. Half of 8 hours is 4, which is inside the 2 to 4 hour range, so the driver is paid 4 hours at $24, or $96.
• New Hampshire. 2 hours at $24, or $48.
• Rhode Island. Three times the hourly rate, or $72.
• New York. 4 hours at the basic minimum wage, or $68 in the New York City area and $64 upstate.

Told at 9:00 the evening before, the same driver never reports, and none of those rules is triggered.

California’s list of exceptions has no line for a cancelled contract. It excuses threats to people or property, advice from civil authorities, a utility failure and an act of God or another cause outside the employer’s control, with an earthquake as the Labor Commissioner’s example. Treat a broker pulling a run as a cost you will pay.

You can also fill the shortfall with real work. California owes reporting pay only when less than half the scheduled day’s work is furnished, and hours spent cleaning vans, doing inspections or sitting in a training meeting are work. The driver is paid for that time, and it counts toward the minimum.

How is reporting pay different from on-call pay and split-shift pay?

They answer three different situations, and one day can involve more than one.

• Reporting time pay covers a shift that does not happen.
• On-call pay covers being held ready. California’s wage order says its reporting rule does not apply to a worker on paid standby who is called in at a time other than the scheduled reporting time. Massachusetts treats on-call time as working time unless the employee is not required to be at the work site or another location and is free to use the time as their own. The federal on-call rule and a setup for night dispatch are in the after-hours guide.
• Split-shift pay covers a day worked in two blocks with an unpaid gap. California, New York and the District of Columbia each add one hour’s pay at the minimum wage, and New York adds it as well when the spread of hours runs past 10. The split shift entry explains when the gap can stay unpaid.

In California, reporting time pay is not compensation for work performed, so it is left out when overtime is figured. The overtime guide covers the hours that do count.

A rule your dispatch desk can follow when it sends a driver home

Put these six steps in the dispatch playbook so the person on the phone is not working it out at six in the morning.

1. Cancel early and say so in writing. The moment a cancellation reaches you, call and text the driver, and note the time of each attempt.
2. Never make a driver call in to learn whether there is work. In California, a phone call two hours before the shift can count as reporting.
3. Check the hours before anyone goes home. Compare the hours the driver has worked so far with the minimum for their state in the reporting time pay rules by state.
4. Fill the gap with real work or pay it. Offer van cleaning, inspections or training for the missing hours, or pay the difference.
5. Pay it with the hours worked. In California reporting time pay counts as wages, so an unpaid amount at the end of employment can bring waiting-time penalties under Labor Code section 203.
6. Write down the reason. If an exception applies, such as a utility failure at your lot, note it so the pay decision is on the record.

Keep the same rule for every driver in the same place. Clean timekeeping records are what settle a dispute later.

Tracking shifts and sent-home days in HealthRide

In HealthRide, each driver’s scheduled shifts sit on their schedule, drivers clock in and out on the driver app, and the drivers and timecards report in reports shows the hours each driver worked. That puts the scheduled shift and the actual clock-in and clock-out on one record, so you can check a sent-home day against the minimum before payday.