October 2026 Iowa Q&A roundup

Q           Should we pay employees for the time and travel to workplace injury follow-up appointments? We’ve been requiring them to use paid time off (PTO).

This issue is governed by workers’ compensation laws, which may vary slightly from state to state. In general, it would be inappropriate to require that employees use PTO for time related to treatment for a workers’ comp injury, as it can result in a wage or retaliation claim. If you have specific questions on this matter, you should discuss it with your workers’ comp carrier and your local counsel.

Q          Must a nonexempt employee who is scheduled to work 14 hours in a two-week pay period be paid overtime if the employee works more than the 14 hours?

Unless there are contract considerations, including an individual contract or a union contract, under federal law, employees qualify for overtime after they’ve worked 40 hours in a defined workweek. There are some exceptions in health care for what’s called the 8/80 rule (overtime for more than 8 hours in a day or 80 in a two-week period), but this isn’t used extensively in health care at this time.