There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it in the winter. Bat Masterson, 1853 – 1921
Classifying an employee as exempt means the employee is not only exempt from overtime, but also from other wage regulations and less recordkeeping is required. However, docking an except employee’s compensation does take some care. The U.S. Department of Labor lists eight situations where you as an employer are allowed to deduct from their salary. The group of exempt employees for this discussion are the ones classified as executive, administrative or professional
1) If the employer has a sick plan in effect and the employee exhausts the sick pay plan, the employer may make deductions in increments of days. The employer may not make deductions in increments of hours. If an employee is out a day and a half, then the employer may only deduct a day’s pay.
2) When there is an absence that is not related to sickness, but is at the employee’s own whim or will, the employer may only make deductions in full-day increments.
3) Deductions may be taken for jury duty.
4) Deductions may be made for military leave.
5) Deductions may be imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance.
6) Unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days may be imposed in good faith for workplace violations.
7) An employee’s salary may be pro-rated if the employee doesn’t work the entire week while taking intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
8) An employee’s salary may be pro-rated during the first and the last week of employment.
If we process your payroll, we do our best to keep you aware of such
situations – because it’s not always obvious what is the right thing to do.
Cheers,
Bryan
