Exempt staff after "Training Period"

cselib

This may sound like an odd question. Can an employee be classified as non exempt during their initial training period when they do not have to use independent judgement, i.e. "shadowing" another employee? We have had an issue with an employee who has just recently started, and was out part way through her second week of employment. The Executive Director does not wnt to pay her for the partial days that the employee had worked. I personally am of the opinion that we must pay her for the entire day on those days.
Thanks,
Cheryl

HRinNH

Welcome to the Forum, Cheryl. We aren't the only HR forum out there but I believe we are the nicest!

I'm not an expert but I believe you have to pay your new employee for the time off unless you made it clear that she's on non-exempt status during her training period.

Good luck,
Cheryl C.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I don't know about nicest, but we are the best looking forum.

Rockie

Hi Cheryl!

As a general rule, exempt employees must be paid for an entire week if they work any part of the week. The only exception to this is the first and last week of employment.

It appears your employee knows a bit about the law since this is the second week of employment we are talking about. You will owe her for the week.

System

As a general rule, you may classify any employee as non-exempt, but they must be paid overtime for work over 40 hours. Even though someone classify's for the "exempt" status, you are not forced to pay them a salary, but can opt to pay them hourly - but this needs to be communicated to the employee at hire so as to avoid any misunderstanding. I believe you would be allowed to classify someone as non-exempt during a training period, then re-classify them as exempt at the conclusion of training, as long as the minimum salary ($455/wk) is paid and the job passes the "duties test" for the exempt status tp be legal. Anyone disagree with this??