Timekeeping for Exempt Employees

jenni7 · December 2002

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.

Theresa Gegen TX · December 2002

Merely tracking the hours worked should not put the exempt status into question.

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!

Hatchetman · December 2002

There may be what DOL considers to be acceptable reasons for tracking time of the exempt employee or knowing when he or she is in or out of the office: e.g., billing; liability; ensuring adquate coverage of certain duties. Also, since DOL doesn't have a problem with paying hourly OVERTIME to exempt emplyees, it seems to me if your company does allow exempt emplyees to "get" overtime tracking their time to determine when such overtime kicks in would make sense. Tracking time for disciplinary purposes, such as an exempt employee who comes in late continually, is also seen by DOL to be an acceptable reason.

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.

System · December 2002

I just returned from a Wage and Hour seminar on Tuesday. One of the presenters was a 32 year veteran with DOL - Wage and Hour Division. He stated there is absolutely no problem with keeping track of exempt employee hours. However, we cannot dock pay for less than 1 full day if the employee is absent for personal reasons (absence is initiated by employee, such as illness). If the absence is initiated by the employer (example: suspension) we can dock in full week increments. He stressed that if we suspend an exempt employee, it makes more sense to suspend for 1 full week. If we suspend for less, we have to pay the employee for the full week. Hope this helps.

Ruskanen · December 2002

I've always stressed to managers with exempt employees that "we can not fill out a time sheet and I don't want keep track of their absences and tardies, but YOU can." They generally just make notes on their personal calanders of their employees' appointments, unscheduled absences and tardies.

Don D · December 2002

Our company requires each salaried (exempt and non-exempt) person to turn in a formal, rather complicated, two-week time sheet every other Monday and we use it for these purposes: (1) It is audited by HR against leave slips to ensure that vacation and sick leave are accurately tracked and charged to their balances, (2) Some exempt supervisors are paid bonuses for hours in excess of 40 and this is the form used to track those hours, (3) We calculate FMLA hours missed using this form, signed by ee and supervisor, as a basis, (4) It serves as an undeniable record later of days when the employee was not at the facility, (5) It serves to some extent as a record of the work area to which the ee was assigned during the pay period. We have not found any of these reasons to be problematic with DOL. Your question seemed to be more about a supervisor informally tracking time and I agree with the others that there's nothing wrong with that unless used for docking or required makeup purposes.

jenni7 · December 2002

Thanks to everyone for replying to my question.

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.

Timekeeping for Exempt Employees

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