Donna Genie walks through what small business owners legally owe when sending staff to conferences. If employees travel during their normal work hours, you must pay their hourly wages. Covering attendance, hotel, and travel costs is common, but payroll obligations often get overlooked.
Taking your staff members to a convention is a pretty big thought process and a big expenditure for most small business owners. So let's talk about how you have to make sure that you're complying with all the rules if this is something you decide to offer. As we know, conventions come up all the time, and even off site meetings or mini conventions, many times it's worthwhile to take your employees to these because they come up with a lot of great new ideas. They're jazzed up and ready and energized to help you grow your business when they get back, typically. So how do you care for that? Are you responsible to pay for the expenses? What happens to their pet? Okay, let's dive in a little bit. You are responsible, most likely to pay for their convention attendance and maybe any hotel or travel. You don't have to, but most studio owners do want to do that if that's the particular situation where you'd like to ask an employee to attend. But then the big question comes about, what about payroll? How does that happen? What are you legally required to do? Traveling time? If your staff is traveling during the time when they would normally be working, you're required to pay them their hourly payment.
