Changing Status of an Employee

Rockie

Have any of you ever had occasion to classify a Payroll and Benefits Specialist position as an exempt position. I have heard of a Payroll Manager or Benefits Manager being classified as exempt.

My situation is this: We have a payroll and benefits specialist who does payroll and benefits processing. Our payroll is outsourced, so she basically does inputting,correcting, etc. Benefits are also outsourced - so most of the work is paperwork - setting up schedules for benefits personnel to come in and talk with our employees, helping employees complete paperwork, etc.

She is currently hourly paid which I feel is appropriate. She is able to manipulate her schedule to work as much overtime as she needs to based on her financial needs. Ex. work on Saturday or Sunday in order to make overtime when she might be able to get her work done during the week if she applied herself.
She amasses an overtime average of 10 hours per pay period.

She has very poor computer skills and is not doing anything to help herself in this area.

All in all, I cannot see any way to make this a salaried position. I feel we would be better off to have the supervisor control her overtime and discipline her if she exceeds it. Otherwise, if we simply change her status, it will appear that we are trying to avoid paying overtime.

I, personally, have never seen anyone in this type of position be classified as salaried.

Thanks for your input.

Down_the_Middle

Based on the summary of her duties, I don't see any way to legally make this an exempt position. This might rank up there as 1 of the major "wonders of the world", if you choose to make this position exempt....... You're absolutely right in addressing O/T as the issue. The duties you describe seem to me to comprise about a .6 FTE employee, so I'd certainly be suspicious of the 10 hrs of O/T on a regular basis.

Theresa Gegen TX

It seems to me that she is not being supervised properly. She should be told that she is expected to get her work done in 40 hours per week and that she will not get overtime unless it is preapproved by a supervisor in a special circumstance. Her problem is not the manner of her pay, it is based on performance and lack of supervision and should be dealt with as such.

Good Luck!

NACCAS_VA

I believe you are correct that the payroll position does not fall under any of the exemptions in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Your organization might adopt a poloicy that all overtime must be pre-approved by a manager. Also, in the evaluation of the employee, rate her on her ability to complete the job on time, within the regular work day. Our organization hasn't paid any overtime in ten years! Mary Bird, National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts & Sciences, Inc.