Salaried Exempt employees

Randy L

Can an employer require salaried exempt employees to clock in at 8am, clock out at 5 and deduct 1hr of time each day for lunch, whether you take lunch or not?

Also, can a minimum requirement be set that if you work over 4hrs per day you must clock out for lunch?

Down_the_Middle

The short answer to your 1st question is YES, altho I'm wondering WHY? The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn't address this clock-in procedure, but I can tell you from experience that "the tracking of hours worked for exempt employees will almost certainly bring suspicion from Wage & Hour investigators". It's a risky requirement. There is undoubtedly some suspicion over whether these position are genuinely exempt and if the employer has concerns/suspicions, imagine the cynical W & H folks...... In my view, having exempt employees clock-in & out (other than for a test period of time) is an invitation for a wage & hour audit.

The 2nd question is also yes, unless you have a state or local ordinance that mandates something different.

Rockie

It's really a moot point to track an exempt person's time or have them clock in and out. (The DOL will want to know "why are you doing this and what are you doing with the information?) Why go looking for trouble in this arena?

Don D

At first I thought NO and NO. But upon further thought, the answers do seem to be yes, AS LONG AS the company is NOT using the system as a method of docking the exempt ee's pay somehow. I think this is yet another case of a supervisory person who has plateaued out and never learned or cared to know anything about FLSA. This is the same kind of boss who makes you turn in one pencil nub before you can have another one issued.

LindaS

What are you "deducting" the hour from? A salaried exempt employee is to receive the same rate of pay no matter how many hours they work. With a few limited exceptions you cannot deduct from an exempt employees pay without jeopardizing their exempt status. As far as their schedule, you have the ability to mandate what hours they are expected to work.

Leslie

You can require your exempt employees to work a certain schedule. I have five exempts working for me, and they work either 7 - 4 or 8 - 5 as HR's hours are 7 - 5. There's no talking of working nine, only getting paid for eight. It's their schedule.