Timekeeping for Exempt Employees
jenni7
4 Posts
If a manager tracks an exempt employee's time (i.e. when they come in and when they leave work) does this put their exempt status into question? I know that tho DOL doesn't like exempt employees being treated like non-exempt but I wasn't sure how they felt about this.
Comments
There are several valid reasons to track hours worked:
1. To determine if work load is fairly distributed;
2. To determine when employee reached FMLA qualified status;
3. To determine who the most efficient workers are.
An invalid reason to track hours worked would be for pay purposes (to pay hourly or to dock pay for hours missed).
Good Luck!
While it is possible that a DOL investigator could question the appropriateness of the manager tracking exempt employees time, I doubt, by itself, that tracking would result in the loss of the exempt status, especially if the manager could show a business reason for doing it.
DOL is primarily concerned that the tracking of time doesn't result in the reduction of the exempt employee's salary entitlements under FLSA regulations unless it falls under intermittent or reduced FMLA.
I was somewhat confused as I recently attended a Personnel Law conference where the leader told of a boss you had the exact hours of all his staff (including exempt) tracked going back for years and handed this to the DOL investigator. The investigator promptly turned round and required him (the company) to cough up for all the over time plus punitive damages.
Anyway, all seems clear now so thanks again.