Q: I am a manager at a company that has been sold for the third time. Through the first two owners, my hours remained at 45 a week, which my salary is based on. We were grandfathered in at 45 hours. But now the new owner wants us to work 50 hours a week without additional compensation, which, in effect, lowers my hourly pay. Can the company do this? What’s to stop the company from increasing our hours whenever they want to?
A: If you are truly a manager, your company generally can increase your hours at any time without paying you any more. But if a union or employment contract restricts your hours, the company would have to honor that.
“It’s rather common for employees’ hours to be increased, and even more common for managers’ hours to be increased,” said Irv Miljoner, of the U.S. Department of Labor. “We hear from them all the time.”
Non-exempt employees, generally hourly workers, must be paid for all the hours they work. But exempt employees — those who fall into the executive (including managers), professional, administrative or outside-sales categories — don’t have to be paid for all hours worked.
But companies can’t just declare an employee exempt because they want to. The person has to meet a duties test. For managers, that includes making at least $455 a week and working primarily as a manager.
For more on exempt employees, go to the Department of Labor’s Web site: www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance /whd/fairpay/fs17b_executive.pdf.
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Carrie Mason-Draffen is a columnist for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper. E-mail her at yourmoney@tribune.com.
