Question for CBG

What is the name of your state?Fl

Hi, You recently replied to a post with this quote: "An exempt employee is not paid on the basis of a 40 hour week. You get your same salary if you work 25 hours or if you work 65 hours. It is by no means unusual for an exempt employee to work more than 40 hours; their weekly salary is determined with this in mind"

I see after reading your posts that you are extremely educated and experienced with this type of law. So I will ask my question and hope you can give me some info.
I have been an "Exempt employee" most of my career (Restaurant management). For the most part I usally worked an average of 55 hours, 5 days a week...sometimes 65 or more, 6 days a week depending on the restaurants needs, however since I was "Salaried" I always got the same pay regardless. I recall a few times when I needed a day off and I only worked 4 days in in which my check reflected 4 days..the company figured out what my salary was daily and "Docked" when I had taken that day off. I have also owned a restaurant and I had done the same for my "Salaried managers" providing that they had no "Sick, Personal or Vacation" days to use. After reading your reply and quote my question is: Is docking an "Exempt employee" within DOL laws, seeing that they (we) didn't compensate for "Extra days" worked"??

Also, after continuing to read your replies I noticed that this has come up a few times:
"BTW, nothing in Federal or Arizona law requires your employer to provide you with a copy of your employment file, or even to see it if they don't want to. It's entirely up to the company whether to permit it or not. Barring a subpoena, I don't know of any way you can force them to give you a copy of the letter"

I have terminated quite a few employees in the past years as a restaurant manager. I have always been told that "I MUST keep/have records, ie: write-ups, etc...on all employees because they have the right to have copies of that information whether still employed or not"...Does the above quote apply in Florida?

I just noticed the Forum topic 'Wages,Salary" which is where my thread should've been started (Sorry) but since I added the second question I think I should just leave it alone....

An exempt employee may legally be docked under the following circumstances:

1.) In either the first or last week of employment, if they do not work the entire week.
2.) If they are on FMLA
3.) In a company with a bona fide sick time policy with a reasonable number of days, when all the days available to you have been used up and you call in sick again. (Reasonable is not defined in the statute; it is considered to be at least five and ten is better)
4.) When the employee takes a day off for strictly personal reasons
5.) When the employee has been suspended for a major safety violation (effective the 23rd of this month, any disciplinary suspension will count, not just for safety violations).

So if you chose to take a day off and you did not have any vacation or personal time to apply to it, it was probably legal to dock you.

With regards to the second question, like Arizona, Florida does not have any statute requiring an employer to show their personnel files to the employees. However, that doesn't mean that they can't; just that they can't be compelled to. I personally believe that regardless of whether the law gives them that right or not, every employee should be able to see their file. Obviously your manager felt the same. The right he mentioned may not be a legal right, but it is an ethical right.

cbg said:

So if you chose to take a day off and you did not have any vacation or personal time to apply to it, it was probably legal to dock you.

Click to expand...

I am pretty sure that when I had taken the day off my benefits (Sick days, Vacation days etc...) had not kicked in yet, so I would have to say that it was legal to "Dock" for that day based on the info you wrote. I just wasn't sure that by being classified as "Exempt" (in general) it meant the company could not "Dock" pay for days missed under any circumstance, but on the other hand the company did not have to compensate for extra days worked either....

In either case, you successfully answered my questions and I thank you for that....

Sounds like it probably was. Let's put it this way; nothing in your post indicates that it was NOT legal under the circumstances you describe. (Bet you've heard me say that a lot, too!)

Just one thing, Dan, for completeness and clarity's sakes. Barring intermittant FMLA when you only work part of the day and take protected FMLA time for the rest, there are NO circumstances in which you can be docked for PART of a day. As an exempt employee, if you work ANY part of the day (with that single exception) you must be paid for the whole day. If you come in, work one hour and go home sick, you MUST be paid for the entire day.

They CAN (in 48 states including yours) deduct the balance from your sick, vacation or personal time. It's legal to dock a time bank in any amount as long as the paycheck remains whole. So in the above example, if you come in, work one hour and go home, you can be paid for one hour and have the remaining time paid out of your sick time. If you come in, work half a day, and go home to go to your kid's school activity (or to play golf) they can pay you for half a day and pay you the balance out of your vacation time. And so on. As long as your paycheck remains whole, it's legal.