When you are on Salary for 8 hours a day, yet you attend three weeks of schools that average 10 or 11 hour days, by law, is the institution you work for required to give you comp time?? Just curious.

By 'on salary' do you mean exempt? In that case, no. Comp time would be a welcome accommodation, but not a requirement.

What do you mean by exempt??

Sorry - - exempt from wage-and-hour laws. In other words, on salary and not paid by the hour. I'm guessing that the Iowa Department of Labor has a website with plenty more information on wage and hour law.

Sorry, yes, I am. I understand I don't get it. I looked it up and found my answer. Thanks though.

Usually when you're "on salary" there's no time limits for work. You state on salary for "8 hours" but on salary means you normally work a much or as little as you want (well within bank expectations of course).

hhhmmm.. that makes you hourly pay decrease.

This brings up a question I have wondered about. There are days when a person who is considered an exempt employee works overtime, and is not compensated for this time. But, these same people are also limited to a number of sick days. If they go over the allowed number of sick days, they are not paid for this time. How can this be? Is this truly exempt?

One of the most popular misconceptions involving the Fair Labor Standards Aact is an employer's right to deduct from or "dock" the salary of an exempt employee for absences during the workweek. When are such deductions proper? The answer may surprise you - very rarely! Generally speaking, an exempt employee must receive his or her full salary for any week in which he or she performs any work -- regardless of the number of hours worked. While there are a limited number of exceptions to this rule, deductions are not permitted, for any reason, for absences of less than one day. Whole day deductions are permissible, but should be very limited in use. The last thing the bank needs is an intrusive investigation by Wage and Hour. It is very time consuming, disruptive and expensive if back pay and fines are imposed.

What about sick leave and vacation time? Should exempt employees leaving 2 hours for a DR's appointment be required to use 2 hours of sick leave. I've worked in one place that says no and another that says yes,

Typically the answer is no. If the employee does not have sick leave of vacation time to use, you would be in a situation of docking their pay. Since you cannot dock an exempt's pay for less than one day increments, (under current regs) and because exempt employees are required to work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours per week without additional compensation, they you have to pay them for the time off. Now, if your payroll system can manipulate sick days and vacation on an hour-by-hour basis, you can do it. However, you cannot deduct pay if there is no paid leave benefit to use. It becomes a matter of administrative convenience to allow the exempt employee to take the time off with pay. If it is misued (other than FMLA) then there is a performance problem that needs to be handled.

I agree with Bob and wouldn't even hit the sick time for an exempt (in my state referred to as salaried) employee in amounts less than 1/2 day increments. I've always considered exempt employee's sick, vacation, and personal time in terms of "days" and not "hours" which makes it easier to calculalte. If an employer makes improper deductions in an exempt employees pay, it runs the risk of having that employees "exempt" status revoked subjecting the employee to overtime pay. The 2002 average workweek for exempt employees in the US was 45 hours. That was down from 48 in 2001 and presumed to reflet a desire for more family time post September 11.

Sorry for the anonymous... I am curious that I understand this issue. I am an exempt employee. If I leave 2 hours early because my son is sick... I cannot have my pay "docked" for 2 hours because of it or have to use a half of a sick day. Do I have to come in and make up that time on another day that week?

Just curious.
Thanks!

You cannot be docked. Whether it will be charged against your banked leave time or you have to make it up will be up to your bank's specific policy.

I agree with Bob; you can't be docked. Whether your company deducts the time from your available time will also depend on whether the company is governed by the Family Medical Leave act which permits reductions in time in hour increments. We are not subject to this law, so day increment calculations make it easier for us to comply with FSLA. Also, an employer can't just call someone exempt to avoid paying overtime. Employees must qualify for this exemption. A detailed list can be found at http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/screen75.asp
If you are a banker classified as exempt, you fall under the White Collar Employees exemption. Hope this helps.

Our policy on exempt employees, is if they are in for part of any day they are considered "in" for that day. We only track full days out - though most exempt employees will report a vacation day taken when they take two 1/2 days out. Our exempt employees are on the honor system for the most part and we have not had any abuse issues. If we trust this group to make loans, personnel decisions, etc., we also feel it right to trust them to manage their own time. Under certain circumstances, supervisors do grant comp time (i.e., when an exempt employee needs to travel on Sunday for a conference, for example, or IT management that needs to work all weekend for some reason.)

Opinions are mine and mine alone.

Right on Sue, except there is no compensatory time for exempts. Comp time only relates to non-exempts and can only be granted in the work week in which any over-time may have occurred.

What would you say to hourly employees who are asked to attend seminars or schools that require them to be away for days or weeks at a time? Should they receive pay for a 40 hour work week or should it be different?

If you feel it should be different, how would you effectively calculate it?

Obviously, the person would be allowed to sleep, eat, etc. while away and therefore would not be spending every minute on bank business.

There is also the possibility that during non-seminar hours they may be networking or getting further information that will be later used by the bank.

Under the Portal Act they would only be compensated for a normal day of work for each day they were in seminar. If the seminar runs longer than 8 hours per day, they would be paid for the extra time. While is this highly unlikely, it does occur. They would not be compensated for time not spent in training after hours and weekends. This is called non-payment of wages for preliminary and postliminary time. If their travel time to and from the training occurs dring normally scheduled working hours they would be compensated for that time.

Bottom line, they only get paid for the hours they would normally work, but no additional travel time.

Just a quick management chime in. I always grant my employees leave or over time for the time they spend traveling which is greater than their normal communte. REGARDLESS of the time of day they travel.

For instance, We're traveling 13 hours via plane to Boston for training. Plane leaves at midnight. How could it possibly be right for me to not grant her the leave, despite the hours at which we fly?

One more important point? (at least to me) LOL Bank of America is being sued in regards to their defination of "exempt" staff. I was an officer of the bank (manager) and worked on average over 10 hours per day, weekends, etc. They're making a huge payout (it's already begun) for the last three years of their errors.

Be careful how you define "exempt". Even a Vice President didn't qualify in that case. Key is facing the same suit as well.

By bank policy we also compensate for travel time when it's not during normal working hours. For example if an hourly employee is traveling on Sunday for a Monday morning training session, they are paid for the time they spend in the car driving to the destination - but not for their time once they get there.

Opinions are mine and mine alone.

Where can I find more info on the B of A lawsuit?

Can your leave time be charged and put in the negative? For example, can you charge an exempt employee for 36 hours of sick leave when they only have 20 hours accrued?

Yes, it happens. A prolonged illness or accident requires the exempt person to be out beyond the accured sick leave they have. They go into an arrears situation borrowing from future unearned sick days. How is your policy written. Some policies allow it, some don't. If the policy doesn't allow it, then it is unpaid time off once the maximum benefit has been used.