Exempt Employees

Rockie

Could someone give me the specific portion of the regulations that govern the fact that you must pay salaried employees for a full week if they work any portion of that week. We have some managers that want to dock a salaried person's pay if they are out (they have exhausted PTO). We do not have a bona fide sick leave plan. I contend that you cannot dock a salaried person's pay if they work any portion of a work week.

If they are out of leave time, how can the issue of them being out a day or two a week be addressed? (Do we attach future accrual of PTO?).

This can get tricky and confusing because I can see how a salaried person can take advantage of the sitaution if they wanted to.

Please advise.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-08-02 AT 06:00PM (CST)[/font][p]You use the word "salaried." I assume you mean "exempt" which is a salaried employee...but an employee can be salaried and non-exempt (it is posible).

Take a look at the Code of Federal Regulations 29CFR541.118(a). The website is:

[url]http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=29&PART=541&SECTION=118&YEAR=1998&TYPE=TEXT[/url]

The regulations don't say exactly what you are saying. They do permit that an exempt employee's weekly salary can be docked for a full day's absence due to illness under a bona fide sick leave plan that has a compensation feature to it, and for personal time off.

The day's absence for personal time off can be docked even if the employee is out of accrued time benefits or even if you don't provide paid time off for personal reasons in the first place. If you notice, unlike the provision related to absence due to illness or injury, there is no requirement that the personal time off be on a "paid" or compensated status or that your polcy have a compensation feature for personal time off.

For absence due to illness, the policy, plan or practice must have a compensation feature to it. It doesn't appear to mean necessarily accrued time benefits. Since your sick leave policy or plan or whatever you have has no compensation feature, then under provision (a)(3), your company doesn't seem to be permitted to dock the day's pay because of an absence due to illness or injury. But consult your legal advisor to make sure since I am not an attorney.

Pork

You need Regulations Part 541: Defining the Terms Executive, Administrative, Professional and Outside Sales. Paragraph 541.118 (1), (2), (3)cover your specific issues. (1) supports your understanding; however, (2) & (3) supports what others in your company might want to do. Do it wrong and the individuals could be declared as "not exempt" and your company be caused to recompute the employees pay at a very high hourly rate of pay and "PAY OVERTIME". Believe it or not someone is keeping their time worked on their calendar and will produce that personal accounting of time allowed to work. You and your company probably have no official record of time worked thus the only evidence of time worked is the employee. Big bucks here make sure you hold all supervisors, managers, and owners at bay until you have gotten your attorney's advice on this one. My first position as an HR allowed me to have the opportunity to learn about the wage and hour auditor and what evidence we don't have and the employee has. It hurt to the tune of double digit cost plus fines. The employee was then also allowed to continue working in our company. Remember "no retailation"; it is not the employees fought that management and owners don't know what they are doing! That is why we in HR are so important! Good luck.