new salaried employee pay
pattycake
7 Posts
We recently hired a nurse who is salaried. Her start date was 01/03/06. She has so far been abssent from work 3 full days, 1 day due to her being sick, 2 days due to her child being sick, and she has had to leave early on two other occassions, to take her child to the Dr. and for having "car trouble". My question is this; can we legally dock her pay for these absences?
Also, we have a paid holiday coming up on 01/16/06. Do we have to pay her for this holiday? Our policy states that an employee has to successfully complete their 90 day probation period before they are eligible for benefits. This would include paid holidays, paid days off, et.
Also, we have a paid holiday coming up on 01/16/06. Do we have to pay her for this holiday? Our policy states that an employee has to successfully complete their 90 day probation period before they are eligible for benefits. This would include paid holidays, paid days off, et.
Comments
You cannot dock a salaried employee's pay unless it occurs in the first or last week of their employment (this is per our labor attorney). Otherwise, any time a salaried individual works any part of a workweek, they must be paid their full salary.
Depending upon when her absences occurred (if they were in the first week of employment, you can dock her pay).
The same rules would apply to holiday pay. If she works any part of the workweek, she has to be paid her full salary.
In our practice, if we had a nurse starting off her employment like this, we would have to make a decision if we wanted to continue her employment. I would counsel her first and advise that her attendance is not acceptable and if it continues you will have to take further disciplinary action up to termination of employment. Usually, if an employee starts off like this, they only get worse.
Good luck!
According to the FLSA you can make deductions for full day absences if the employee will be compensated through a sick pay or disablity plan. The part I'm wondering about is this:
It says deductions can still be made before an employee has qualified for sick pay and after the employee has exhausted his/her allotted leave allowance under the particular plan or policy. If I read this right, Pattycake CAN deduct for those absences.
Some help here?
You can deduct for whole day absences. You can also require, to the extent available, the use of accrued paid leaves for whole and part day absences. It is those part-day absences that you cannot deduct for when paid leave(s) are not available.
As far as this “first” and “last” week of work thing, the attorney may be right, but I think he’s referring to scenarios where a new employee begins work after a pay-week has started or one that leaves in the middle of a pay-week.
Geno
At [url]WWW.FLSA.com/coverage.html[/url] scroll down to the basis testing section and the 3rd paragraph, last sentence and you will find: However, employers may "dock" the base pay of salaried basis employees in full day increments for: disciplinary suspensions, personnel leave, or sickness under a bona fide sick leave plan (as for example, if the employee has run out of accural sick days). If it were me I would dock this persons pay accordingly and also give the person a letter of instruction about absentism and how the attendance issues are exercised in my company. If your company policy covers an employee's absence due to children then that time is also docked. If you would give me a sick day for sickness of a child, then what you would do for one you must do for all. Since she is a new employee there will most likely not be anytime accurred.
PORK
So we have a plan that says they don't get paid. Legal?
For example, an employer's sick leave plan provides each employee with 10 paid sick days per year. An employee must work for the employer 90 days before becoming eligible for the sick leave benefit. In this example, a deduction of one or more full days MAY BE MADE (emphasis mine) from the salary of an exempt employee who is absent due to sickness:
*Before the employee becomes eligible to participate in the sick leave plan (i.e., in the initial 90 days of employment);
*After the employee has exhausted the 10-day leave entitlement under the sick leave plan; and
*When the employee receives compensation according to the employer's sick leave plan. (In this case, the employee would most likely not see a reduction in pay but rather the employee's sick leave benefit would be reduced by the number of days he or she was absent due to sickness and for which compensation from the plan was received).
(that one surprised me)
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The two days she was absent for her child being ill can be deducted. [url]http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/overtime/cr10.htm[/url]
an employer may make deductions for full day absences due to personal reasons (other than sickness or disability) of the exempt employee.
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Regarding the holiday, I believe she must be paid for that day, regardless of the waiting period for benefits -
(same web page as above) [url]http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/overtime/cr10.htm[/url]
An employer may NOT (emphasis mine) make deductions from an exempt employee's pay for absences caused by the employer or by the operating requirements of the business. If the exempt employee is ready, willing and able to work, deductions from the employee's pay may not be made when no work is available.
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I agree with the others - definitely have a documented meeting with her that her attendance is unacceptable. I don't think you necessarily asked, but the partial days should be paid in full. The only way around that to my knowledge would be if the employee was using intermittant FML time, then you can deduct partial day absences. This employee is definitely not eligible yet.
So LarryC, I initially thought you were incorrect, but I believe the DOL says you are correct as posted above.
lee2, I'd say you're OK on the sick/vacation, but my interpretation is that you need to pay the holidays because the EE is ready and able to work, and they can't because YOU made the decision to close.
Everything I quoted above was an offshoot from this web page [url]http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/overtime/cr4.htm#1[/url] so if you have more questions that aren't covered here, that might be a good place to go. (I always like to have a printed copy of THE LAW straight from the DOL when discussing these things with other members of management, hence all the web sites.)