Exempt EE and WC

domer

An exempt ee's salary can be offset by jury, witness and military stipends - could it be offset by lost wages under WC, too?

crawfod

You're right about jury duty, as long as the employee performs some work during the week. But, a policy stating that exempt employees who serve on juries for extended periods of time will not be paid for workweeks in which they perform no work is permissible.

As for WC, this falls under the "sickness and disability" section of FLSA, and employers are not REQUIRED to pay any portion of the exempt employee's salary for full-day absences for which the employee receives workers' compensation benefits. That being said, our policy provides supplemental income to both exempt and non-exempt employees for work-related lost income, so your company could also offer such a benefit.

cthr

As regards jury duty, you may want to check your state law as some states require you to pay your employees while they are on jury duty.

HRCalico

If only I knew then what I know now . . .

Not sure of your exact circumstances, but as a new HR person a life or two ago, I had an EE who was injured in a car accident on her way to a work-related meeting. Oh, the details - refused to see an actual doc, was recommended to have surgery which she refused, and the only treatment she'd consent to was acupuncture. Fast forward several MONTHS and she was still working only four hours per day . . . of course she was an exempt, salaried employee. I've actually blocked parts of that time period out of my mind.

Were I able to do it all over again, I'd adjust her salary and expected schedule (and job description if necessary) to reflect her allowed hours. Marc and the other nonprofiteers may sympathize - she was the program director for a sizeable grant that required out of state travel, so her restrictions meant that she was sucking up funds that should have been used to pay someone else to do her job.

She also got me in trouble for not communicating enough with her . . . I sent her a draft grant via e-mail, faxed some changes, and then left her a voice mail message. Short of driving three hours to hand-deliver it, I'm not sure what else I could have done.

Moral of this pour-my-guts-out post: don't be held hostage. If you need to make temporary adjustments, put together your paperwork trail and do it.