Anyone in HR?

Anyone work in HR that can answer a question for me about exempt vs non-exempt employees? Specifically, in regards to PTO usage for half days.

LMK!

 

That would be on a company by company basis.

 

I agree policies will change company to company, but in the company I work for we have Salary Exempt and Salary Non Exempt employees. the Salary Exempt gets paid X amount regardless of "worked hours" so say 50k a year Salary whether they work 35, 40, or 50 hrs a week they get paid X amount per week to equal 50k a year.

Salary non example gets paid for overtime past 40 "Worked" Hours. So say I make 50K a year and I work over 40 Hrs this week but I take a paid day off =8Hrs. Now I dont get my OT pay until I reach 40 "worked " hours... So id have to work 48 hrs of actual in the office time, before I can start getting paid overtime..

Hope this helps..

 

This seems to be a pretty standard way that time off/hours worked seems to be calculated.

In my instance - I am a exempt salaried employee. I am paid a set amount every week. Now where things get a little bit hazy is that lets say I work 36 hours and leave early on a Friday. Apparently in order to get paid for the 40 hours I would have to use 4 hours from my own accrued PTO bank. From what I can see is that it is allowed for employers to request this but what I don't seem to understand is that IF an employee has no accrued PTO and takes a half day to end the week is the employer legally obligated to pay the employee for the 40 hours in order to maintain the exempt status of their employment.

From what I read - if you change an exempt employees pay based off of this then it is possible for them to become a non-exempt employee which would ultimately lead to fines and legal fees.

Why would anyone even consider being an exempt/salaried employee but still be asked to use petty 1-4 hour increments on time off if they have to use it from their accrued time? Why not be an hourly employee at that point?

 

FWIW, I have salaried employees in my business but have always been told that unless they take 1/2 day or more it doesn't count against their accrued PTO. But we're a small business....I just am lenient on them taking an hour or couple hours if they need to do something.

 

I too work in a small business. Granted - if you run out of accrued PTO they will grant you time off but on an unpaid basis. I am fine with taking unpaid FULL days especially if I have a long trip but damnit why do I have to use a couple hours here and there if all I am taking is 3 hours off of a Friday afternoon.

 

Yeah it does seem a bit strange and I am not HR. I don't have any sort of accrued time bank like you describe, but I do know that if I am under 40 hours I still get paid for 40 hours just like straight Salary folks. They want us to "make up time" if say we had to leave for an appointment for a few hours, but Ive never seen it enforced in my case...Its more like they are trying to trick you into making up time because they know your getting paid regardless..