Tap To Call. Posted on behalf of Peter T. Nicholl in Unpaid Overtime May 07, Some employees are exempt from overtime and minimum wage laws because of the amount they are paid and various aspects of their work. If you take your employer to court, it will consider several factors to determine whether the employer engaged in the actual practice of improper pay docking, including: The number of improper deductions The time period when the employer made the improper deductions The number of employees The location of employees and managers.
Whether the employer clearly explained the pay docking purpose and policy Whether the deductions were permissible or not under the law. Our Offices. Free Case Evaluation. This means that whether an employee works five hours or 55 hours a week, the paycheck is the same.
Managers can't deduct pay from an exempt employee when she takes long lunches or comes in late to work. But, the employee isn't entitled to a penny more in the paycheck for putting in an 80 hour week in order to meet a deadline. Companies certainly can give employees bonuses, though, and in situations that involve close deadlines or picking up the slack for a departing employee, bonuses and other recognition are encouraged.
This rule is hard and fast. Once you start deducting from an exempt employee's paycheck you've just made him or her non-exempt. They're now eligible for overtime pay going backward and forward. This is not a mistake you want to make. But, can you ever deduct pay from an exempt employee's paycheck? A few times exist.
You only have to pay employees for the days worked on their first and last week. If your pay periods run Monday-Sunday, with a two day weekend, and your employee starts on Wednesday, you only have to pay her for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Likewise, if her last day of work is Wednesday, you only have to pay for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Otherwise, if an employee works a partial week, for whatever reason, you still have to pay for the whole week, unless it qualifies under another allowed deduction.
These aren't real deductions—the employee is still earning the same amount of money; it's just that her paycheck is smaller. If she's under a court order for child support, alimony, or to pay off debts, you can and must deduct what the law requires and give that money to wherever the courts direct it.
Frequently, with these court-ordered deductions, employees are not happy about what you are doing to them. Make sure that you make it painfully clear to your employee that you are only following the law and must do what the courts have ordered. Remember, you're not actually docking her pay; you're just paying some of her bills automatically. Among the factors a court or government agency will consider when making this determination are:.
An employer with an actual practice of making improper deductions will lose the overtime exemption for all employees who work in the job classification s for which the deductions were made and work for the managers responsible for making the deductions. In other words, the employer will have to pay overtime if earned by the employees to everyone who holds the position from which improper deductions were taken.
An employer will not be subject to the penalties noted above if either of the following are true:. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.
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Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state. Grow Your Legal Practice. Meet the Editors. Find out when you can reduce a salaried employee's pay -- without running afoul of wage and hour laws. Who Qualifies as a Salaried Employee? Cancel Sign In. Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. OK Join. An error has occurred. From Email. To Email. Send Cancel Close.
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