Paying Exempt Employees

cathisp · September 2007

We have an employee who is not coming to work due to a child being ill. The employee only has been working here a little over two months and has missed a number of days. Do you still pay the salary when the employee is out of work due to personal reasons? I know the employee can use any paid time off days that are available, but what about when those are exhausted???

hr410 · September 2007

depends on your policy or the precedent you want to set. If you don't have a policy, and leave is exhausted, and the employee is not eligible for FMLA (state or federal), then your choices are to either grant LWOP, grant paid leave (but be ready to do this in all other cases too), or terminate the employee if he/she is not able to come to work and perform. I am a fan of LWOP where there is no policy, but the precedent issue is tricky.

dhall111 · September 2007

If the employer has a bonafide leave policy and the employee is out of leave, they may dock the employee's salary for any day in which no work was performed. So if the employee took off one day and normally works five, you may pay the employee 4/5 of their normal salary.

Mrscx5 · November 2007

RE: dhall111's comment on 9-26-07 regarding PAYING EXEMPT EMPLOYEES

A supervisor in our organization used her PTO (inc. vac and sick time) by July, 2007. She happens to have the most PTO in the compay due to length of employment. The office policy states that PTO must be used for all regular work schedule, non-worked time, including those the company closes icluding the day before Christmas and New Years (this year).

I was told we cannot dock her pay because of her exampt status.

jah819 · November 2007

I agree with dhall - you can dock for an entire day where there work was not performed as long as you have a bonafide leave policy. I would also recommend that you check your state law.

Mrscx5 - I would almost think that you could dock the supervisor's pay if the leave is for an entire day.

LadyAnn · November 2007

You could not dock for Christmas and New Years if your supervisor is ready and able to work but cannot because the company is closed. You can dock her pay for full days that the supervisor doesn't work because of personal reasons (including being sick).

TXHRGuy · November 2007

According to FLSA, you can only dock for full days of absence due to personal reasons other than sickness and disability. However, if there is a bona fide sick pay plan in place and there is no sick pay accrued either because it's too early for an award or it has all been used. The salary basis of pay is covered here:

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.602.htm

See (b)(1): Deductions from pay may be made when an exempt employee is
absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons, other
than sickness or disability.

Be careful! You can only make full day deductions except for FMLA absences. If the person walks in the building to say "Hi", I'd be careful about deducting and documenting. If you mess up on the salary basis of pay, the employee's salary status may be brought into question (along with everyone else in the same job), which could result in painful litigation.

If your company is short on written policies for dealing with exempt employee absence, I agree with the poster who suggested leave without pay. If the situation goes too far, then you may want to write some policies and communicate them.

Paying Exempt Employees

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