Exempt employees

Karen

One of my coworkers has asked me for the exact citation in the law regarding exempt employees taking off hours to counter extra hours worked in previous weeks.

Here's the situation: we had an event for which nearly all of our exempt employees had to work on a Sunday (we are typically an 8-5, Monday through Friday operation, except when we have special events). One of those employees has asked to take a full day off to make up for the fact that she had to work that day. We have no formal written policy about this, but our office culture has been that exempt employees are expected to show up to work the extra hours when needed, but we allow a great deal of flexibility in letting them leave for doctor's appointments, children's needs, or other personal reasons. We do not count these on an hour for hour basis, we just let them take time as they need it and expect that it will all average out in the end. It has never come up before that someone wants to take a full day off, counted hour for hour, for the time worked on a weekend.

Is there anything in the law that would specifically prevent us from not allowing this person to take the full day off without using a vacation day?

Any asistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Karen

awilliams

Karen- I did a quick search for you on our employment law database and found an article that answers your question. Although, you may need to look to your state law for a precise answer and citation.

The article states in part, "Use of comp time by salaried employees did not present a problem because the WMWA specifically permits comp time to be used, so long as the employee's salary is not affected. Requiring employees to "make up" deficiencies in hourly quotas through vacation time or docking of pay, however, was held to be inconsistent with salary basis employment. Similarly, disciplining salaried employees with unpaid suspensions of less than a workweek also violated the concept of salary basis employment."

If you are a Law Center Member, you can view the rest of this article by searching our Washington Employment Law Letter database. You also can view out Executive Special Report entitled, "Defusing the Overtime Bomb: How to Comply with the FLSA," which will give you some more background information.

If you have any problems with accessing these articles, or are not a Law Center Member, and would like to become one, you may contact our website managing editor at [email]webeditor@hrhero.com[/email].

Karen

I'm sorry--I'm not a member, and I have been totally unsuccessful at convincing my supervisors that I should be. Is there any other way for me to access these articles?

Karen

System

Hi Karen,

What a bummer! The Law Center really is a great resource. In fact, we just finished redesigning the HRhero.com members area on Friday, including a short tour you can take to learn more about the member tools. Look it over at [url]http://www.hrhero.com/membertour/[/url] and see if your supervisors recognize it will help your company save money in the long run.

And meanwhile, sounds like Rockie has given you a great answer to your question!

Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]

Rockie

I think you have been handling exempt people exactly right in the past insofar as the flexibility of schedule, etc. This issue of exempt people starting to demand "comp" time is something that I am personally seeing more and more of. I try to make it very clear on the front end that they are paid for a job and are not compensated on an hour by hour basis. Consequently, their time is not "monitored" and accounted for like an hourly person. Even if a person contracts to work only three days a week for a certain amount of money and to get the job done occasionally takes them an extra day in the week to accomplish, they are entitled to no extra compensation. I have an acquaintance that works in comp and benefits for a hospital and she is only supposed to work four days a week, but due to some projects, etc. she has had to extend her work week to accomplish the duties of her job. She gets no extra compensation, either monetarily or in time.

The way I would handle it is if someone who had worked on weekends, etc. wanted to take an afternoon or a day off occasionally, then I would just let them take it, but not keep any type of "hour by hour" comp time on this. I believe this is where you get in trouble, trying to give extra "compensation" to an exempt person on an hourly basis. The DOL states if you treat a salaried person like an hourly person, then you destroy the exempt status and can be liable for back overtime.

You definitely need to convince your supervisors that you need some backup and support from other areas, especially in legal matters. Unless you have a law degree as well as a degree in Human Resources, it is almost impossible to keep up with all the changes and the little nuances of the law that can get us all in trouble. One good hit from the DOL will usually convince management that it is more cost effective to "prevent" rather than "pay up".