Our business is in North Carolina.

I have two employees who we are compensated as "salaried non-exempt".

Clearly I must pay them time and a half for any hours worked over 40 per work week. Because of this, I will require they punch a timecard.

As a perk, may I allow them to work fewer hours without docking their pay? For instance, if they work 39 hours one week for whatever reason, can I still give them their full salary? Or do I have to pay only for hours worked (can I make salaried non-exempt have different pay policies than hourly non-exempt)?

And further, may I create a policy that they will not be docked pay for below 40 hours unless they fall below, say, 38 hours (at which point we would dock them only for time not worked below 38 hours-they would still get up to two hours free per work week)? This would protect the company of any loss greater than 2 hours pay per week, but would allow them to relax a little about how many few minutes late they might be one day, or a little longer lunch hour, etc. (a "salaried" perk).

I would want to do this for all salaried non-exempt employees as a company policy, but not for hourly non-exempt employees.

Sound legal and reasonable?

Thanks

You can always do more than the law requires.

The law requires that an employee be paid for all the hours they have worked, plus overtime for hours after 40 in a work week. That is the minimum you must do. The law is not going to object if you pay them more than that, only if you do less. So you may certainly pay them the full salary if they work less than 40 hours a week; in fact, I'm not sure how you could call them "salaried" non-exempts if you did not. You may also set a standard where they will be docked only if they fall below it.