I'm a salary paid employee and I work at least 45-50 hours every week. Of course, I understand that I don't get paid for anything over 40 hours, but if a salaried employee is out for some reason shouldn't they get paid for it? I had to take 2 days off for an illness and my boss maid me use 2 of my vacation days of time I'd built up got get paid for the 40 hours that week. I had even worked over about 16 hours during that same week, but yet I still had to use my vacation time for the 2 days I was out. If I didn't have the 2 days of vacation time built up I wouldn't have been paid 40 hours. I would have only been paid for 24 hours.
I work in a Nursing Home and here we don't get any holidays off so instead we accrue PTO (Paid Time Off) for vacations, holidays, etc. This also is for hourly employees. Now if an hourly employee works over 40 hours they get paid time and a half, and if they take a day off they would have to use PTO to get paid for that. Salary employees on the other hand can work tons of extra hours over the 40 and NOT get paid, and then if they are out a day they still have to use their PTO. I want to know if this is legal?

The law allows for an exempt employee to be docked in the following situations:

1. If it is the first or last week of employment and the employee does not work the entire week
2. If the employee is on FMLA
3. If the employer offers a reasonable number of paid sick days, and the employee calls in sick when s/he has either used all the time available or is not yet eligible for the benefit
4. If the employee takes a full day off for personal reasons
5. If the employee has been suspended for a major safety violation
6. If the employee has been suspended for the violation of a written company policy which applies to all employees and which relates to workplace conduct

The DOL has taken the position that vacation, sick, personal, PTO and other paid leave issues are between the employer and the employee. They do not care what "bucket" the money comes out of as long as the employee receives all the pay due them. So barring a state law to the contrary (and CA and WA are the only states with such laws, and even in those states the laws are limited) the employer may legally apply such paid leave to absences, regardless of full or partial day absences.

Nothing your employer has done violates any laws.