Exempt Status

Reggie

Employees with an exempt status in our county are treated the same as non-exempt, (except they are paid salary versus hourly). Everyone is required to fill out time cards. Employees whom are exempt are required to accrue comp time at the o.t. rate when applicable, where hourly can take the pay or comp time. Even salaried employees are required to use a paid benefit when taking paid time off. Is this violating the FLSA?

System

You say "employees in our county." I assume you mean that they are public sector employees who work for the county government. FLSA does treat public employers/employees slightly differently than private employers/employees when it comes to overtime. Public employers can have their non-exempt employees accrue overtime at time-and-a-half or pay it out as compensation or any combination of the two as long as it comes to time and a half for overtime over 40 hours per work week. Exempt employees in the public sector may be docked day's pay when they are absent full day due to bona fide sick plan or vacation. DOL rulings do permit employers (private and public) to dock accrued hours balances for partial days' absences for exempt employees--just salary can't be docked when partial day's absence occurs. But as long as accrued time benefits exist for the employee, those can be docked for the partial day's absence. FMLA specifically allows exempt employees salaries to be docked for partial days' absences under FMLA intermittent or sporadic leave without affecting their exempt status.