Salaried Managerial Employees Required to Work 12 Saturdays A Year

Gracie

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-09-03 AT 06:16AM (CST)[/font][p](A) We currently have this policy in which branch managers and some dept managers have in their job descriptions to work a total of 12 Saturdays a year in a retail dept of ours, direct selling. They are not to claim overtime nor comp time since they are salaried managerial employees.

(B) Within the same dept, we also have some salaried exempt, non-managerial sales folks also filling in on Saturdays, and these folks are paid overtime for the hours worked on Saturdays.

(C) Also open on Saturdays is another retail department of ours where managerial employees are given comp time for those days worked on Saturdays.

Questions:
1. Are we NOT in compliant with Wage and Hour laws for (B)?
2. For (A) and (C), are we legally obliged to be consistent in our practices to grant comp time to all managerial employees regardless of job functions? Can we do it for Group(C) and not Group (A)?

I would love to hear your feedback/advice/comments. Thank you.

Shadowfax

If your managers are truly exempt, it doesn't matter how many saturdays they work. Some retail sales people, compensated princip;ally by commission may also be exempt (cfr 779.410/421) I do not knoiw whether this particular exemption may be destroyed by paying o/t for time in excess of x - but would take a careful look at it. The o/t payment may put the commission part too low and in that way violate the reg. I thought comp time was still limited to municipal operations, so that would seem to be a violation.

marc

Sounds to me like you may be jeopardizing the exempt status of your B employees by paying them OT.

moneyman

In this case, I think I would pay them a 'bonus' instead of calling it OT. If you truly want to compensate these exempt employees for additional days worked, then I wouldn't call it overtime. In reality, as exempt, they should work the time that needs to be worked in order to get the job done. If the job requires a Saturday a month, then they should work it. Instead of paying for additional time, since they are salary, I would build it into their base pay. I am currently in negotiations for a job that requires at least 1 weekend a month (it might mean anywhere from 8-12 hours) and more than 8 hour days during that same week. In the salary that we are negotiating, I am, in my own calculations thinking of an hourly rate for 40 hours, plus adding hours for the additional time that I know will be required. That is what I will be asking for as a salary. With that in mind, no additional pay would be required because in essence I am already receiving it spread out evenly over the year. Now, if at the end of the year I find that I am working a lot more hours than they originally told me, it would be time to renegotiate salary again.

In the issue of comp time, if you are still talking about your managerial exempt employees, I really wouldn't call it comp time either, but there is nothing wrong with letting them take a day of during the week in which they work a Saturday. Applying the same rule above, you work what needs to be worked to get the job done and if your company determines that only 5 days need to be worked a week in order to get the job done, then there is no problem letting them take a different day off. It really is just switching days off. And, in the event that you are letting them take a day off in some other week, then by rules of exempt employees, you still are in compliance. They get paid the same thing each week no matter the hours worked. So, if in your mind you want to count hours and give a day for a Saturday, then you could do it.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-04-03 AT 01:51PM (CST)[/font][p]Regrding the exempt, salaried managers working extra days, you may pay them, under DOL interpretation of 541.118(b), overtime, even hourly, either as "cash" or as comp time.

DOL's concern is at no time is the salary improperly docked while doing this. Of course, there is an arguable case to be made that in some federal circuits, that approach could result in the mployee being considered as non-exempt.

One way to handle this extra time (more than what the basis salary is intended to cover) would be to base the extra compensation on the fact that an extra day has been work and provide an extra day of salary or comp time (thus there is no counting specific extra hours worked). Another, as others have noted, would make it as a bonus arrangement. But again, technically, under DOL Opinion you could pay the salaried, exempt managers hourly for the extra time (straight, time and a half, or in any manner you want)

mwild31

In situation (B), they can't be exempt if you're paying them OT. They can be salaried and non-exempt. You should reclassify them as such.

In situation (A), it's okay to set out the expectations/job descriptions of managers and expect them to comply. As exempt employees, sometimes they work less than 40 and other times they work more than 40. The one Saturday a month means they worked more than 40 that week. This is the trade off. If the employee doesn't think it's fair, then you should probably reclassify them as salaried non-exempt.

Comp time is tricky. It's easier in the public sector (they have rules for it) than it is in the private sector. I would probably eliminate comp. time and make that retail establishment consistent with the others. Good luck!