Federal and State Wage-Hour Laws 2 APA's Top Payroll Questions & Answers for 2020 As far as volunteering for other organizations, as long as the volunteer time is not for the employer's benefit or performed on the employer's establishments, those hours are typically not compensable. There are too many different circumstances surrounding the possible scenarios to make a blanket determination. The volunteer work does not necessarily have to be for a religious or charitable organization. As a general enforcement policy, WHD does not usually consider time spent by employees participating as an athlete, umpire, referee, scorer, or any kind of an official in an athletic contest sponsored by the employer as compensable. It is not considered work hours if the employees' participation in these activities is completely voluntary or if their regular employment with the employer is not conditioned on participating in those types of activities. An office employee at a hospital can volunteer to sit with a sick child or an elderly person during off-duty hours as an act of charity. Another example occurs when an office employee at a church might volunteer to do non-clerical service work in the preschool to help with the kids. As long as the activity is during off-duty hours and is an act of charity that is voluntary, it will not be considered compensable. At the other end of spectrum, somebody working at the preschool could volunteer to perform work in some other manner at that church without an employee relationship involving that volunteer time. Samples can be found in 29 C.F.R. ยง785.44 and in volume two of the DOL Field Operations Handbook. 22