Family Daycare Employee - Cost of Training

[nburns]

All - Our daycare has just gotten large enough to bring in an employee. Now, we're quickly trying to brush up on all of the labor laws/responsibilities. One aspect I can't seem to find an answer on is who covers the cost of state-required employee training.

Now, I know that the Day Care owners are required to cover the hourly rate for the time spent by the employee in required training (per FLSA in the attached).

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs46.pdf

However, all training have fees associated with them. Is there a legal responsibility for the Day Care owners to also cover the cost of those fees for their employees? Is it just good business to do so? Some courses vary greatly in fees, so we're a bit worried about opening pandora's box.

Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

[momofsix]

When I worked in a center all of our fees for training were paid for by the center itself. The trainings were also chosen by the center-so no "Pandora's box" so to speak Often times to keep the trainings affordable our director would hire someone she know to come in and do a class for all of us at once. For example: She brought someone in to teach us all our first aid/cpr classes. If we could not attend that class we still needed to be certified but had to do it and pay for it on our own.
We were not paid extra for this, it was part of our salary. I guess if we were hourly then we would have had to have been paid.
There was education I was required to have in order to be hired in the first place (bachelors degree) and of course I was on my own for that
I'm not sure about the legalities of this-but it makes good business sense to pay for the required trainings for employees.

[Margarete]

When I worked at a center they paid for all of the required first/ aid cpr, and background checks, but we paid for all of our training or education. They did make it clear that with more education you would be eligible for raises.

[butterfly]

As a business owner, I would cover these costs and then write them off at the end of the year. I think it's just good business to do it that way.

[Unregistered]

I always pay for their training and the their time while they are training.

[springv]

Our owner always covers the training costs and travel time. Depending on your state, you can usually take training classes online for free and it doesn't cost anything