In very specific circumstances. You can't have people show up at 8:30 because you want to eliminate stragglers, or to have meetings in the "downtime" before the "real work" begins.
That is still time from your life that you are dedicating to your job, thus you should be paid.
Also I'm not sure how a meeting for work could be considered non-work, it is again time out of your life that you are doing a task to meet the needs of the company, thus you should be paid for it.
If your company does client work, but doesn't bill meetings to the client, that's their prerogative, but I as an employee should by contract be paid for the work I am doing for my employer. If it's in my contract that I should do meetings without being paid, then I'm probably an idiot for signing that contract.
Truth be told, the only places I've seen that will pay you incrementally by the minute for anything out of the 9-5 will also dock you incrementally by the minute for taking too long of a lunch break, and count the number of bathroom breaks you take.
For salaried work, I don't think it should matter if you show up anytime within 1 hour of the start of business so long as no one is relying on you to be there (e.g. for a meeting or to work hand-in-hand with you).
Maybe my negation didn't carry across the comma properly. Let me say it here: If you are having work meetings, then that counts as your job.
There are lots of things associated with a job that people have to do besides the work itself. I shower in the morning. I get dressed. I commute to work. Those aren't compensated.
