Q Where can I find the federal employment regulations stating that exempt employees shouldn’t be docked for partial days?
A The best place to find that information is the U.S. Labor Department’s Web site. It makes it clear that employers cannot dock the pay of exempt employees for partial days.
In other words, an employee’s pay can’t be docked because he or she is late or misses part of a day for, say, a doctor’s appointment. If the employer docks the pay, the employee is no longer considered exempt from overtime pay or minimum wage.
“Exempt employees who are paid on a salary basis cannot be docked pay for partial days and still retain their exemption,” said Irv Miljoner, who heads the Labor Department’s Long Island office.
But here’s an important distinction: The employer can deduct the partial-day time off from an employee’s vacation days or other accumulated paid time off.
If an employee doesn’t have that bank of time, the company cannot refuse to pay for the hours missed.
For the regulations, go to www.dol.gov/esa. Click on “FairPay,” then under “FairPay Fact Sheets” click on “By Exemption” and finally click on “Fact Sheet #17G.”
———-
Carrie Mason-Draffen is a columnist for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper. E-mail her at yourmoney@tribune.com.
