Offering Compensatory time for Exempt employees

Roman

This is my first use of the forum. I am an HR Director working in the private sector for a service organization in health care and an event facility. We have about 45 exempt staff and 235 nonexemmpt.

My question: While offering compensatory time to exempt employees is not required for time worked over 40 hours per week, it is often recommended as a good practice to keep people happy. Are there rules governing how comp. pay must be administered for exempt? Should any compensatory time be restricted to apply within the same pay period presuming a bi-weekly pay schedule? Or can employees be allowed to carry hours worked beyond 40 in a week to a future pay period months down the road?

Any insight is appreciated.

Don D

Roman, my man, welcome, and be advised that compensatory time off policies and practices are not allowed under the Fair Labor Standards act in private industry, only public employment.

POPEYE

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 12-14-04 AT 07:23AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Welcome to the forum Roman. Don D is right on. Now there is nothing wrong with giving an Exempt EE time off during the same week for working extra, but the law does not allow any provisions in the private sector for accumulating comp time.

System

Welcome to the Forum, Roman!

I must respectfully disagree with the two gentlement above. What they're saying is the law for non-exempts.

You're not obligated to give diddly to exempts who work extra hours, but you may voluntarily give them something like comp time, extra pay, or a fruitcake. It's a gift, and you can have strings attached to the gift.

There's a little bit about this on page 46 of the new Special Report, "Overtime Ins and Outs."

Good luck.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Don D

James: Once again your journalism degree fails you.

awilliams

The FLSA does not specifically ban you from giving compensatory time to exempt employees in gratitude for their long hours. However, it is not a good practice because tracking a non-exempt employee's hours could be evidence that the employee is truly paid on an hourly basis and not a salary basis and thus the employee would lose their exempt status and you would be liable to pay them back overtime.

Bottom line: private employers should proceed cautiously and discuss this with their employment counsel before giving compensatory time off to exempts.

Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC