My son, who is 17, recently started his first summer job. His employer, who is a small business owner/operator, told him that his "salary" would be $350/wk, his paydays are on the 1st and 15th of the month. His boss also told him that there would be days when they "got finished early" and days when they would "get finished late." I understand that a "salaried" employee is not entitled to overtime, but does a salaried employee get "docked" for not making their 8 hours, not any fault of their own? My son started his job on a Wed afternoon for "training" purposes. The following day, Thur, he worked approximately 9 hours. On Fri., he worked approximately 12 hours. He worked on Memorial Day for approximately 9 hours. That Tue he worked 16 hours, which was the 31st, therefore, the end of the pay period. His base salary for his first check was only $315. His boss explains that it is for four days and four hours. Is this legal? If nothing else, the 16-hour day should have more than made up for the "training" day. If he is docked when the boss wants to quit early, then shouldn't he be paid overtime when the boss wants to work late? Also, I am wondering if there is any type of child labor law that applies to a teenager working that many hours in one day. I apologize for the length of this post.

Hi,

A couple of things here:

Salary employees, if not EXEMPT employees, are entititled to overtime pay for any hours worked over 40 in one work week.

So, secondly, you need to know what 7 day periord constitues a work week at his work place. It seems he worked 46 hours, but got paid for 36, so you need to find out why -- it could be the additional hours are going on the next check.

Let me know if you still have questions.

I can't imagine that any 17-year old would be qualified to perform an exempt-level job so I think we can safely assume this summer position is non-exempt. And that means that your son must be paid time and a-half for all hours worked over 40 in each 7-day payroll period.

It's permissible to pay a non-exempt employee on a salaried basis provided he is also paid for his overtime. By the way "salaried" and "exempt" are not interchangeable terms. Salaried is merely a pay method. Simply putting an employee on a salaried payment method does NOT make that employee ineligible for overtime pay.

If he is docked when the boss wants to quit early, then shouldn't he be paid overtime when the boss wants to work late? Absolutely. But assuming your son is in a non-exempt position, he HAS to be paid for his overtime even if the boss doesn't dock his paycheck if they quit early.

You need to post what State you're in so someone can advise you on your State's child labor laws (although there are very few restrictions on 16 & 17 year olds when they're not in school.)

Here's the link to child labor laws in Texas: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/lablaw/cllsum.html

Beth3,

Why did you remove your reply? Can I still reply on that information?

I didn't remove anything. I don't know what happened to those two other posts of mine.

Yes, you can still rely on the information I gave you on overtime pay requirements. Your son MUST be paid time and a-half for all hours worked in excess of 40 each week.