"Borrowed Time"
HS
923 Posts
If an Exempt employee does not have any PTO (vacation, sick/personal or whatever you call it), can they be "docked" pay for a day that they are out? The policy our company has in place right now, says that an Exempt employee can't be docked and that "future time earned" will be borrowed against. This winds up with an employee "being in the hole" for time and if they leave the company without the time being earned, it gets deducted from their final pay then.
What I want to know, is if you're docking their final paycheck, then why can't you dock them when they take the day off?? Especially if they are willing to take a day off unpaid because they don't have the PTO time earned yet.
Your input as always is greatly appreciated!
What I want to know, is if you're docking their final paycheck, then why can't you dock them when they take the day off?? Especially if they are willing to take a day off unpaid because they don't have the PTO time earned yet.
Your input as always is greatly appreciated!
Comments
I am not sure what you are docking when they leave. Are you docking accrued PTO or are you docking actual pay? I would not dock actual pay when they left for the same reason. If you are talking about PTO, I would take the borrowed PTO back as they accrued it if they were "in the hole" or else not allow them to take PTO until they had some accrued in their bank. ( I realize this would not work in the case of calling in sick).
Hope this answered your question
>paid by the day or hour. They are paid a salary for a job. How would
>you ascertain what to "dock" them if you did not pay them for a day
>since there is no "hourly" salary. If you start docking by the hour,
>then the law states you must be paying by the hour...and this is how
>the exempt status is lost.
Yes, I understand the reasoning about "docking pay", however, some of our employees are in the situation of not having any PTO time and needing to take time off (for various reasons). These employees are willing to take a day without pay.
>
>I am not sure what you are docking when they leave. Are you docking
>accrued PTO or are you docking actual pay? I would not dock actual
>pay when they left for the same reason. If you are talking about PTO,
>I would take the borrowed PTO back as they accrued it if they were "in
>the hole" or else not allow them to take PTO until they had some
>accrued in their bank. ( I realize this would not work in the case of
>calling in sick).
What is being docked is their final paycheck (actual pay) by the amount of days owed (that weren't accrued). For example, an employee took 15 days off this year, but only accrued 10 days. They then resign from the company and because they are "in the hole" 5 days that were paid for (borrowed) from PTO that was never accrued, their final paycheck is reduced by 5 days pay.
So on the one hand, we are saying that we can't dock your pay as an Exempt employee, but if you don't have the PTO time and leave the company before any is accrued, we'll "dock" your final paycheck. How is this legal? (I need to add that our company has recently been acquired and the decision to not dock comes from the new company, we used to dock the day).
You may dock an employee's full day's pay for a full day's absence due to personal reasons. Unlike the situation when an employee is absent for the full day for illness or injury, there is no requirement that the employer have any paid vacation time or PTO time policy or plan. However, in order for the employer to dock a full day's pay for a full day's absence due to the exempt employee's illness or injury, the employer must have a plan or policy that has a compensation feature for absences due to illness or injury. But if the employee isn't yet eligible for the compnestion or has exhausted it (such as with accrued PTO), then the employee may still have the full day's absence docked.
See [url]http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=29&PART=541&SECTION=118&YEAR=1998&TYPE=TEXT[/url]
Thank-you for your input. I thought I remembered reading something to this effect a while back. But I kept getting told that you can't dock a salaried person's pay...yet we're doing it at termination (when they haven't accrued the time). It just doesn't make sense to wait until an employee leaves, as some of them are counting on a final paycheck to carry them through.
Thanks again!
Bottom line, we'll allow a person to "request a day without pay" if they don't have any accrued time. If there is no request for unpaid time, we'll "borrow" from a future accrual.
Ugh! I wish people would make up their minds!