I am an exempt employee in Minnesota. My employer requires everyone to sign in and out and counts the time to the minute. If I come in 7 minutes after the hour I will need to stay 7 minutes extra at the end of the day to make my 8 hours or be docked pay by 7 minutes if my total time for the week is 7 minutes short of 40 hours. Is this legal?

It is legal for them to require you make up the time. It is not legal for them to dock your pay if you do not. However, the real answer here is not to be late.

Thanks for the quick reply. Just to let you know, I am not a youngster and I do know the importance of punctuality. What troubles me about this situation is that I typically put in excess of 40 hours per week. They do have a comp time policy, so it was my misstake to not request comp time for 7 minutes! Could you please direct me to where in the law it is stated that pay may not be docked for exempt employees. I have been serching and can't find it. I would like to have a hard copy. Thank You ~ Kvinna

The law in question is the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is a REALLY long law. Maybe Patty will be able to provide you with a link to the relevant page, but that will get you started.

Yep, here is the definition of "salary basis" and it includes the situations under which the salary of an exempt employee can be docked.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.118.htm