My current company has a policy for salaries employees that seems to me to not be legal and I was hoping for some clarification.

If a salaried employee works 40 hours or more a week, they are paid their salary.

If a salaried employee works less than 40 hours a week, their pay is reduced based on how many hours they work.

As an example, if I was to go on the road for business this week and spend 80 hours working, I would make $1000 (round numbers for easy math) for the week. If next week I spend 40 hours in the office, I would also make $1000. If two weeks from now I have a doctor's appointment and I miss half a day, my pay is then reduced to $900 ($1000/week = $25/hour: 4 hours = $100).

Thanks!

My current company has a policy for salaries employees that seems to me to not be legal and I was hoping for some clarification.

If a salaried employee works 40 hours or more a week, they are paid their salary.

If a salaried employee works less than 40 hours a week, their pay is reduced based on how many hours they work.

As an example, if I was to go on the road for business this week and spend 80 hours working, I would make $1000 (round numbers for easy math) for the week. If next week I spend 40 hours in the office, I would also make $1000. If two weeks from now I have a doctor's appointment and I miss half a day, my pay is then reduced to $900 ($1000/week = $25/hour: 4 hours = $100).

Thanks!Salaried in just a pay method. You need to provide us with what your job duties are in order to determine if you are exempt or non-exempt.

One way or another, there's something wrong.

Salaried is only a pay method and has no legal status or rules of its own. What matters is if the employee is exempt or non-exempt; either can be paid on a salaried basis with a few qualifiers.

If the employee is exempt, they need not be paid additional if they work extra hours; however, they cannot be docked PAY (they CAN be docked leave time in every state but CA, and even sometimes in CA) for partial day absences unless it is either the first or last week of employment, or if FMLA is involved. (They CAN be docked pay in FULL day increments in some limited circumstances.)

If the employee is non-exempt the employer has no legal obligation to pay them for time not worked (I can't say I see the sense of paying an employee on salary and then docking them, but some do and in the circumstances we're discussing it's not illegal). However, if that is the case, the employee MUST be paid overtime at the rate of time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week.

The employer can't have it both ways.