paid time off for salaried exempt....
Lola815
225 Posts
I have a question that has probably been discussed before, so if there is a thread please direct me to it.
Anyway, normally what we do when an exempt, salaried employee wants a few hours off we deduct that time off from their vacation, sick, or personal bank. If they want a full day off, we also deduct from their bank an 8 hour day. Lately the majority of the exempt, salaried employees will say that they worked extra hours during the week so they won't have to use their time off from their bank. It this ok? I totally understand deducting from the paycheck rule, I just don't understand deducting from PTO. Does the DOL have rules? What are your company policies regarding this? We don't have a policy and I would really like one in place. Thanks!
Anyway, normally what we do when an exempt, salaried employee wants a few hours off we deduct that time off from their vacation, sick, or personal bank. If they want a full day off, we also deduct from their bank an 8 hour day. Lately the majority of the exempt, salaried employees will say that they worked extra hours during the week so they won't have to use their time off from their bank. It this ok? I totally understand deducting from the paycheck rule, I just don't understand deducting from PTO. Does the DOL have rules? What are your company policies regarding this? We don't have a policy and I would really like one in place. Thanks!
Comments
However, in some states, state wage and hour laws or regulations may prohibit the employer from charging the accrued time bank for the hours missed in a partial day's absence -- thus the employer still has to pay the missed hours as part of the day's salary but doesn't recoup the loss.
Regarding a salaried exempt employee's ability to earn overtime, even on a comp time basis, again, formal DOL Opinion over the years has permitted that to occur. As long as the employer is not using the payment or accrual of overtime as a rouse to get around the the prohibitions against improper docking in 29CFR541.118(a), the DOL has no problem with the employer having a policy or practice of a salaried exempt earning overtime -- cash or comp time (working beyond what the weekly salary is intended to cover) -- even on an hourly basis.
What your employees are asking is up to what your company wants to do. FLSA doesn't require any charging of accrued time banks for partial days'a bsences or the payment of overtime in the situation you describe, but only permits it with proper safeguards. State law may prohibit one or both practices.
Has anyone dealt with this situation and come to a legal and effective solution? If so please let me know. This is probably the most pressing concern for our company at this point in time. Basically, we want to be able to allow employees to take a few hours of vacation if they go watch their kids play soccer or something. But we can't find a legal way to do so without either forcing them to take an entire day off, or just allowing them to work less than 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week.
Nothing in California wage and hour law and notihing in DOL/FLSA specifically prohibits an emplyer from tracking time of a salaried exempt at the expense of jeopardizing the exempt status. In fact, it is acknowledged that it is understandable that an emplyer dothat in svairous situations (such as for billing). An emplyer can track for disciplinary reasons. The only thing the employer may NOT do is to pay the weekly base salary on the amount of hours worked (except for intermittent FMLA leave or public sector). Ovetime may be issed thhoug that could be paid on an hourly basis for the salaried exmept working more hours that the salary is intended to cover. Thus an salaried exempt who leaves early or comes in late can be disciplined; but he or she mayy not have salary docked because of tardiness or leaving early.
However, one consideration should be noted. The more steps the an emplyer takes to make a salaired exempt look like a non-exemnpt or appear to be paid on an hourly basis, the more likely it is that DOL or the State Laobr Commissioner will consider the positin to be non-exempt and the emplyer's tracking or improperly docking pay or doing other things along that line could be used as proof on intention if the emplyer does wind up even accidentally to pay the exempt's based salary on an hourly basis.
As always, this is open to abuse from a few, but by and large, you usually get much more than 40 hours from a salaried individual.