I'm a salaried, exempt employee. My employer docked my pay because I wasn't there the day before (or after) the holiday because I was sick. I thought this rule applied only to hourly employees. Does anyone know if there is a law supporting this?

You did not work the day before or after the holiday. Did you work the rest of the week? It matters to the answer.

For the week of Thanksgiving, I did not work at all. Holidays were Thursday and Friday, and I returned to work on Monday. I had six hours of vacation time left, that was applied to the Monday before Thanksgiving.

I was also sick on January 2 and did not get paid for New Year's Day. I had worked the prior week and on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. I did take a couple hours off (approved personal time) on the 3rd to go to the doctor.

thanks!

Since you did not work at all the week of Thanksgiving, they need not pay you anything for that week, including holiday pay. Even an exempt employee does not need to be paid when they do not work the entire week. This is one of the circumstances in which an exempt employee does not have to be paid under the law.

For the week of New Year's, they do have to pay you for the holiday. The law allows certain docking of exempt employee's salaries, but days when the company is closed for a holiday is not one of them.

cbg,

Thanks for the information.

The question now is, how do I approach the situation at work? Is there documentation or a specific place where this law is written that I can share? Will the employee handbook need to specify this information? Currently it obviously does not.

No, it does not need to be written into the employee handbook. It is Federal law that limits the instances under which an exempt employee can have their pay docked. I don't have the exact link but I'm sure Patty will tomorrow.

Here ya go. Specifically, paragraphs (a) and (b)
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.602.htm