Docking exempt pay for absences

FT

We have a salaried employee (salesman) who has no sick time or vacation. He did not come to work for a few days due to family issues. Is there any problem deducting those days earnings from his salary? Thank You.

HRQ

I had to research this area too. There are a bunch of posts in this section that address your question, but it does take some digging to get to the ones that best answer your question. x;-)

It is my understanding at this point that you cannot dock pay unless it is for intermittent FMLA, or for a full week, or for suspension due to a serious safety violation, or for the first or last partially-worked week of employment.

:-? Does the employee have vacation pay accrued but not yet available to him? You might consider waiving the waiting period to vacation/sick benefits for exempt employees, and allow them to use these benefits immediately as they are accrued. That way, you don't have to pay regular salary when they didn't work.

If the exempt has exhausted their vacation/sick bank, you might consider allowing them to "go negative" to a certain limit. I am considering this for my policy - as long as all exempts are treated similarly, does anyone see a problem with this? Nothing extensive, maybe up to 16 hours? Could we "take it back" if they exempt should terminate before accruing back to zero or a positive balance?

I guess I've added a few questions in my attempt to answer YOUR question.

Hope I was helpful anyway!

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-01-03 AT 08:46PM (CST)[/font][p]You've put "salesman", "exempt" and "salaried" together. I assume that this is an outside salesman, who don't have to be salaried to be exempt? You really do mean exempt and salaried, right?

If so, a salaried exempt may have full days' absences docked from hiss or her weekly salary as provided for in FLSA Regulations at 29CFR541.118(a) when the criteria for docking such pay is met.

That is Volume 29, Code of Federal Regulations, Section or Part No. 541.118(a).

An exempt employee's full day's absence for personal reasons (anything other than the employee's own illness or injury) may be docked from the employee's salary even if there is no accrued time on the books, or even if the employer has no such leave time at all.

The link is:


[url]http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2002/julqtr/29cfr541.118.htm[/url]

HRQ

Just when I thought I was catching on to this.... x:-8

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-02-03 AT 07:53PM (CST)[/font][p]HRQ, don't feel troubled. No one, from what I've seen, gets it all initially. It takes re-working the possibilites and constant re-reading the regulations and discussing and finding out about other people's experiences just to understand what some of the FLSA provisions mean. xflash And that's not even dealing with any state requirements, like in California. Just keep slugging away at it.

HRQ

Thanks for the encouragement! Hopefully I can occasionally contribute some wisdom to these posts too. (not just in HR de har har) x:D

Half the battle is knowing when you DON'T know something. (And being able to admit it!)