Laws for salaried employees in New York State
topo814
3 Posts
[:(]I am having some issues with my employer... I have been at this job for almost 5 months, and I apparently did NOT understand the policies in the manual... I need to ask a few questions....
Here's the deal...
I am a product manager, a salaried employee, so one would assume that since I work on a salary basis, I wouldnt get paid hourly, right? WELL... each paycheck that I get, says 35 hours for the week... and if I have a Dr appointment, and I am out for an hour or 2, they subtract it from the 35, and I only get paid for the hours worked. I am not sure if this is legal? I have never had an issue before, as we are all adults, and people have things to do sometimes!
We are allowed an hour for lunch, which I never take and ALWAYS Work thru- so, if I am out at a Dr for an hour, why cant they count that hour toward the time I was out of the office? I also come in early, which should count in my favor, since they treat us like we are on the clock. I REFUSE to stay one second past 4:30, which is the time I get out of work... I dont think I am wrong!
My company DOCKS people if they are sick, and dont have sick days left. My company doesnt let you swap sick/vacation days, and we have NO personal days. Religious holidays are counted as vacation, and if no vaction left, we get DOCKED.
My company had the AUDACITY to make someone use their sick and vacation time when she had breast cancer, and was sick, and going through treatments. Once the time was used up, that was it. Thank goodness shes in remission now, but cannot enjoy a few days to relax, because she will get DOCKED for those days... are there any laws on this?? Nevermind laws, what about morals?
These people act like we CHOOSE to get sick... What an awful place to work =(
What about pregnancy? I am not sure if they could dock someone for dr appointments, or sickness due to pregnancy, but I wouldnt put anything past them! I do know that you can take 12 weeks under FMLA, and I did hear you can take 26 weeks under state disability after the birth of the baby... Can anyone help me with some answers?????
Thanks!!!!
Comments
Wow - that's a lot of questions. Maybe you should start by looking at the exempt/nonexempt rules under the FLSA to see if you are exempt or noneempt (or ask your employer how they classify the job). See the DOL website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/. Under NY state law, exempt white-collar employees must perform certain types of work, and they must generally be paid on a salary basis and receive a minimum salary. To qualify as a salaried employee, an employee must be paid a predetermined amount each pay period. The amount paid may not be reduced because of a variation in the quality or quantity of the work performed. With limited exceptions, the employee must receive his or her full salary for any week in which he or she performs any work, without regard to the number of days or hours worked. However, the employee need not be paid for any workweek in which he or she performs no work.
For your FMLA question, doctors appointments are covered, but they are not paid (FMLA is unpaid time, unless the employee/er substitutes paid leave for FMLA leave). See http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/ for more information on FMLA
"I am a product manager, a salaried employee, so one would assume that since I work on a salary basis, I wouldnt get paid hourly, right? WELL... each paycheck that I get, says 35 hours for the week... and if I have a Dr appointment, and I am out for an hour or 2, they subtract it from the 35, and I only get paid for the hours worked. I am not sure if this is legal? I have never had an issue before, as we are all adults, and people have things to do sometimes! "
Is your pay docked or do they just dock your sick time? They can legally dock your sick time if you are an exempt employee, but they can only dock your pay if you are out for a full day and have exhausted your sick time. If you are non-exempt that is a completely different story. (If you are non-exempt, then they can dock as they see fit but they must pay OT.)
As far as the other actions, I am not seeing anything that could be construed illegal. It may not be to your liking, but it is within the law.
If it is such an awful place to work, my only advice is to start searching for a new employer.
I am a product manager, a salaried employee, so one would assume that since I work on a salary basis, I wouldnt get paid hourly, right? WELL... each paycheck that I get, says 35 hours for the week... and if I have a Dr appointment, and I am out for an hour or 2, they subtract it from the 35, and I only get paid for the hours worked. I am not sure if this is legal? I have never had an issue before, as we are all adults, and people have things to do sometimes! [/quote]
Are you exempt or non-exempt? Big difference. Salary is a method of pay, doesn't necessarily mean you are exempt.
[quote user="topo814"] We are allowed an hour for lunch, which I never take and ALWAYS Work thru- so, if I am out at a Dr for an hour, why cant they count that hour toward the time I was out of the office? I also come in early, which should count in my favor, since they treat us like we are on the clock. I REFUSE to stay one second past 4:30, which is the time I get out of work... I dont think I am wrong! [/quote]
From how you are writing, it doesn't seem to me that you are exempt. If not, you should not be working through lunch - and if you do, you should be getting paid for it. If you are exempt, then they don't have to pay you for more than your regular salary.
[quote user="topo814"] My company DOCKS people if they are sick, and dont have sick days left. My company doesnt let you swap sick/vacation days, and we have NO personal days. Religious holidays are counted as vacation, and if no vaction left, we get DOCKED. [/quote]
So? Not a problem I can see. Perfectly legit and I know most companies have similar practices.
[quote user="topo814"] My company had the AUDACITY to make someone use their sick and vacation time when she had breast cancer, and was sick, and going through treatments. Once the time was used up, that was it. Thank goodness shes in remission now, but cannot enjoy a few days to relax, because she will get DOCKED for those days... are there any laws on this?? Nevermind laws, what about morals?
These people act like we CHOOSE to get sick... What an awful place to work =( [/quote]
Why should any company pay someone who is not at work? I'm sorry your co-worker has cancer and I'm glad she is in remission, but that isn't the fault of the employer. Does the company offer any type of disability plan? There is no law that requires an employer to provide any type of benefit such as leave. And if they do provide a leave benefit there is no law that says it must be paid indefinitely. My God, companies would go out of business if they had to pay people when they weren't at work indefinitely.
I do have one more follow up question . . . are you an HR professional?
I am not an HR professional... Thats why I was asking questions.
I am exempt- I do not get overtime, and I get paid for 35 hours per week whether I work thru lunch, or stay late, etc.
The hours designation for a salaried employee has more to do with payroll administration than with hours worked.
You say you are salaried. You may actually be hourly and, for the most part, paid to schedule, and your employer is simply breaking the law when it comes to overtime and lunch breaks during which you do not actually break. You may also be an exempt employee, requiring that you be paid on a salary basis, and your employer is simply maximizing his or her rights under the law to supress earnings for time not worked, which is legal but not a lot of fun. When we say "exempt", we refer to an employee who is exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Exemption from those protection laws cannot be simply declared by the employer. There are three things that must be true for you to be properly classified as an exempt employee. First, you must be paid on a salary basis. Second, your salary must be a high enough weekly amount ($455 right now, I believe). Third, your job must be composed of the types of duties that puts you in an exemptable catagory such as an administrator or executive. If you go to http://www.dol.gov and read up on FLSA and duties tests and classification materials, and the salary basis of pay, you will see if this is an appropriate category for you. Be aware that the FAQs and documents, including the regulations, on the DOL website don't tell the whole story. People ask the DOL questions, resulting in DOL opinion letters, that can shape how these things actually work. Court actions also have significant impact on these matters. So, if you find something that you believe to indicate that your employer is doing something wrong, I suggest you consult with counsel to be sure you have your facts straight before you unnecessarily and perhaps wrongly create an adversarial relationship with your employer.
There are very technical but legal ways that an employer can work you more than 40 hours without paying time and half above and beyond your normal pay but those means generally cost more than simply paying overtime and can create additional administrative overhead. So, while possible, they are also improbable. If you are in fact an exempt employee, I suspect that your employer is not doing anything illegal from what you've said.
It is currently legal to have exempt employees sign in and out. In fact, you can have exempt employees clock in and out.
I know this is an old post but it is timely information for me. My company has decided to have all employees sign in on a paper sheet with time of arrival. There is no sign out. This is for all exempt and non-exempt employees.
Based on the above response, this is not illegal. However, it is demoralizing. In all my 25 years of professional business experience NO company I ever worked for required this. Is this a new trend? Yes, I can look for another job and I will.
To have this archaic policy is insane and only fosters poor morale, IMHO.
Before the Bush-era amendments, some courts found that forcing exempt employees to account for their time put their exempt status at risk. Other courts disagreed. But what do you do when your employee's time has to be billed to a client? Ask your employee not to account for his time and make numbers up for billing purposes? That certainly won't do. Then, on the other hand, let's say that an employee was improperly classified as salaried and now the employer owes that person back overtime and minimum wage pay. How would you know how much time that was?
To fix those problems and resolve the circuit court split, the regulations made it OK to keep track of exempt employee time.
Some managers believe that salaried employees don't actually put in a hard day's work. So they make them clock in. That's OK now under the law. Because our culture has established not clocking in as a status symbol, a lot of people are irritated by this.