Part-time HR Manager - exempt or hourly?

RachelCA

I had worked as a full-time HR Manager for 4 years before I reduced my hours to about 28 hours a week. I was an exempt then. As a part-time, my annual salary still meets the minimum salary requirement for being classified as an exempt. However, I was reclassified as an hourly after I reduced my hours. Does this make any sense to you? Why or why not?

Irie

I don't know why your employer would do this since you still meet the requirements for being classified as an exempt employee, but there isn't anything illegal about doing it.If it were me, I think I would ask them why they are re-classifying you just to satisfy my curiosity.

Dutch2

Same here, not sure why they would do this, but there is nothing wrong with doing so. Any position can be set up as hourly and there is no foul. My first thought was...is this a way of digging you for reduceing your work hours or they may just not understand the difference in exempt and non-exempt.

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-25-06 AT 09:37AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Have your responsibilites changed at all? When you went to part-time status, were the responsibilities you once possessed assigned to someone else? If so,maybe they felt your part-time responsibilities could no longer pass the "duties test" under FLSA. Other than that, no clue.

RachelCA

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-25-06 AT 11:45AM (CST)[/font][br][br][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-25-06 AT 11:44 AM (CST)[/font]

My responsibilities have not changed at all. We've different pension plans for the exempt and the hourly. The exempt pension plan is much better than the hourly one. All the part-times are paid by the hours worked and considered hourly, regardless of their job responsibilities. They do it across the board. I guess there is nothing illegal to do that and I have a hard time to get them classify the part-times based on their job responsibilities.

NaeNae55

We have had part-time exempt postions. You simply adjust the salary for the reduced hours. However, like full-time exempt employees, you cannot pay by the hour. The employee may still come in late, leave early, and may occassionally work more than the suggested hours without any adjustment in pay. (The schedule is suggested, not guaranteed.) After all, a full-time exempt employee works on a 'suggested' schedule too. At some companies this means 36 hours, at some it means 40, and at some it means 50.

It is quite likely your payroll deparment is not familiar with this idea, and assumed you should be hourly. I would check into it.

Good luck!

Nae

pork1

Rachel: Classifying positions and job task assignment to determine EXEMPT or NON-EXEMPT status is the appropriate action for your concerns. What are the physical things accomplished by you in the performance of your responsibilities? If your reduced hours have to do with the physical work accomplished like: payroll, filing, enrollment and termination of employees records. These are physical activities that will always be seen as functions that are labor intensive and should be provided to non-exempt labor persons.

I am currently physically doing and handling our W/C accident injury administration. My new assistant is not ready to take on this physical job/function. She will in time and I will be happy to turn over this activity as soon as she is ready. I have it back up and running from what was a real mess! For days there I was spending whole days doing nothing but W/C.

Do your job task analysis, put the information together and formalize your process for determining the appropriate job status for your position. Just because it was EXEMPT at one point in time does not make the position subject to down grade or up grade by the whim of an "accounting bean pusher"!

Pork

Raymond SPHR

Not knowing all the facts it is hard to say with absolute assurance nothing is amuck by you being reclassified. In all honesty it sounds like it is fine and based on at or near 28 hours per week (which is part time in most places) I would have looked at doing the same thing with your classification.

You did say all part time people were hourly at your location.
That being company wide is good but it doesn't have to include all.

Unless you can do a job analysis and show your duties and responsibilities incorporate being exempt status, I think you are properly classified.

So being in HR it is up to you to prove that your status should be EXEMPT, not the other way around. Since you know about such things, being an HR Manager, that should not be hard to do at all.

Irie

There's nothing wrong with classifying an exempt as a non-exempt but you can't go the other way with classifying a non-exempt as exempt. I'd welcome being classified as non-exempt then I would get paid for all the hours I work over and above 40 (or in your case you will get paid for hours worked over and above 28).