A bit of background: I've been somewhat mustachian since before I found MMM, so when I got married we decided my income alone was enough to support us, plus still save 20%+, so my wife could quit her soul crushing job in insurance. She digs kids, so she has been looking for work as a nanny or working at a day care. Pay is substantially less, but it's her passion and she loves being around the kids, so she is much happier. She did the nanny thing for awhile, and recently got a job at a day care...
She got a job at a day care making barely above minimum wage, but she hangs out with babies all day and enjoys it. The job requires that she be first aid trained and cpr certified. She is expected to pay for and attend these classes and not get paid. They also have child care training sessions that are 4 hours long every other month. Attendance to these is mandatory, and they are not paid.
When my wife first told me this my initial reaction was that it's not fair, and probably not legal either. I don't see how they can make attendance mandatory as a condition of employment, but not pay you for that time. My wife was so enamored with a new and exciting job that she simply shrugged it off and figured it was still worth it overall. But now that she's been working for a few weeks, and worked a full day, and then had to attend a 4 hour mandatory training session immediately after, reality is setting in that this is real time out of her life that she is not being compensated for.
My initial gut reaction is that it's not fair and we probably have labor laws set up to stop employers from exploiting employees in exactly this scenario, but i'm not familiar enough with them. I looked up the Fair Labor Standards Act, and from what I can tell it explicitly forbids not paying for employee training, and I don't see any exceptions that would allow this.
Is it legal what her employer is doing?
How should she handle the situation?