part time, exempt, benefits

gateway

We are creating a part time exempt position, but I am unsure how to handle the benefits. Currently, only full time staff qualify for benefits (health, life, disability). We are a Union shop, so most of the full time staff are non-exempt. Can we offer benefits for this position since it is exempt? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

NaeNae55

Since no one has answered, I will take a stab at it. We have two part time positions who are exempt. They basically job share. Since the employees each work half time, they get 50% of Paid Time Off, holidays, etc. (Whoever would have been scheduled to work on the holiday is the one who receives holiday pay...50% holiday pay and 50% from their Paid Time Off accruals.)

We treat insurance on all part-time employees based upon the number of hours scheduled per pay period. Anyone who meets the minimum threshold gets the same benefits as full-time regular employees.

Part time exempt can get very tricky since you want to avoid looking as if they are working on an hourly basis. We solved our problem by having one employee work full time for a week, and then the other employee working full time for the following week. Before we switched to this method, they each worked every other day (we never considered splitting a day a possibility).

I am currently considering switching them to hourly anyway, even though the position qualifies for exempt. This would make it easier for the employees to work with their scheduling issues (ie easier for one to work 6 days of the pay period while the other only worked 4 to cover a special situation.)

gateway

Thanks for your input, it is helpful.