Exempt pay

We have an exempt salary employee that we would like to change back to hourly pay. What are the laws if any?

Thanks for your help
Tammy Russell
Office Manager
[email]tammyr@russelllandscapegroup.com[/email]

Comments

  • 3 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Has this person's job changed? Your REASONS for making the change from exempt to hourly make the difference between being ok and running into trouble.

    If the job changed, then you rewrite the job description to fit the new duties and responsibilities and use it to decide the job is hourly and explain everything fully to the employee.

    If the job has not changed but the employee wants to be paid hourly, you should still be ok. You can always do more than the law requires, so as long as you pay this employee overtime, etc, you are ok. Just document what you are doing thoroughly or you run the risk of the job having to stay hourly even if the situation changes and you want to go back to exempt.

    If you have an exempt position with an employee who you feel is not working as they should, then you should handle it through disciplinary measures (not job status). Changing the position to hourly as a method of controlling an employee is NOT recommended.

    Good luck!

    Nae
  • Welcome, Tammy!

    The problem is not so much in the laws as the method of classifying employees. Either a position is classified as an exempt or a non-exempt employee under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). An employer cannot "decide" to move someone from one category or the other, the position itself has to qualify.

    Have their been changes to this position's responsibilities that would result in it being re-classified as non-exempt? I would suggest taking a look at the Department of Labor website, and this handy fact sheet from them:

    [url]http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17a_overview.pdf[/url]

    Good luck!
  • Hi Coffee!

    I took 4768905 to mean the job was exempt, but they wanted to pay a particular employee doing the job hourly. That would be a case of 'exceeding' legal requirements and so is permissable by law. Of course, I am also assuming they are doing it for the employee's convenience. And, they must also consider the affect on other employees doing the same job. If it were me, I would be very reluctant to go there as the possibilities of future problems (precedents, jealousies, etc) abound. However, strictly speaking, it is legal.

    Good luck!

    Nae
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