I work in a trade for a company who takes contracts all over the USA. Our policy is to be at the job site ready to start our safety meeting at the start of shift time. For most sites, this is as easy as showing up just a few minutes early to gather your things and be ready to go, like you would for any other job.

However, at the current job site, we are required to go through multiple safety inspections on site before arriving at our meeting area. Full car inspection, then going through a metal detector and x-ray machine for items as you walk in the building, checking in with security, and then taking the elevator up to our meeting area. This is a process and it takes some time.

Because of this, I am required to be there at least 15 and preferably 30 minutes before shift time. On our time sheets, we are not allowed to put a start time before the scheduled time, unless we actually do any work in that time (moving materials inside or something like that). It's a short time per day, but over the course of a week, that is at least one hour and up to two that we spend getting checked into the site unpaid.

My question is, because we are required to go through this process at the job site and prior to arriving at our meeting area, is my company following the laws by not allowing us to clock in during this time? Or should we legally be paid for that time?