Question first, then the details;
(In GA) Is my employer required to pay/compensate for a mandatory weekend meeting for salaried employees?

I work in the office. Recently my company has decided to do a 'Women of ***** HBDI seminar', since all of the office employees are female. I've come to find out that they have no intentions of paying us for Friday evening through Saturday evening. When questioned, my supervisor stated that the company has gone to great expense to make this happen (paying for the hotel and meals) and so we would not be paid.

My concern is that I've also found out that our field employees, all men, are also having a mandatory meeting on an upcoming weekend. The hourly employees will be paid time and a half, the salaried will be paid straight time over time. They are also paying for the same accomidations (hotel and meals) for the field employees.

The question is not whether or not you are salaried. Salaried is only a pay method. What matters is whether you are exempt or non-exempt.

If you are non-exempt, then you must be paid for a mandatory meeting and if this put you in an overtime situation (over 40 hours a week) then you must be paid at time and a half.

However, if you are exempt, they have no legal obligation to pay you any additional compensation at all. They may if they choose; they are not required to.

This is true for both groups.

Whether or not this is a gender discrimination issue depends. If they made the decison to pay men but not women, that's illegal. But if they made the decision to pay field officers but not office staff, and it just happens that the field staff is all male and the office staff is all female, that's unwise but technically legal.

If there were a woman on the field staff, would she get paid?

I am not sure whether we are exempt or non-exempt. You see, all decisions around here are made by the office manager or company owner.

I am having trouble deterimining exeption due to this statement;
"The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance."

In my case I would say no I do not have the ability to exercise independent judgement. I have to report to the Office Manager for all important issues. However, this is debatable, I'm sure.

Is there a better description of expempt and nonexempt? The address I used was;
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17a_overview.htm

In regards to the field employee training meeting. The male management will be paid. There are no female field employees, however to avoid a lawsuit I am sure the company would pay them since they are paying the male field employees. The Field Management is definately exempt and being paid for this venture.

There's no definition I can point you to that is more clear, I'm afraid. Sometimes whether or not a position qualifies is a judgement call.

As I said, an exempt employee CAN be paid additional compensation; it's just not required by law.

You're going to have to make the call as to whether or not the intent is to pay "men but not women" or "field but not office". One is legal, the other is not. I agree it's unfair, and it's unwise, and even if the intent is the legal one you might prevail. But nothing is guaranteed.

If you feel you should be classifed as non-exempt and paid, the place to complain is the state DOL. If you decide to go the discrimination route (the two are not mutually exclusive - you can do both or neither as you decide) you'll probably have better luck with the EEOC than the GA Human Rights Commission.