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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    13

    Default Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: CA

    I work for a small company as a process engineer, and have worked here for about 18 months. I am salaried exempt. When I took employment with my current employer we agreed upon my salary rate and it was to be paid over 52 paychecks (they pay everyone weekly here). I was fine with that. My employer shuts down the plant for 2-3 weeks a year for vacation during the major holidays. I am not allowed to come in and work during those times and they are not paying me for those weeks. Is my employer required to pay me for that time, or are they only required to pay me for the holiday days? I am not being paid my full salary that I thought I was going to receive.

    Everyone I have talked to about it outside of work including other engineers at other companies think they should have to pay me, but none of them are attorneys so they don't know any more than I. Any time the other salaried exempt employee or I have tried to talk to the owners about it they just get mad and tell us they don't have to. They don't really explain anything other than that if we don't work at all we aren't entitled to pay.

    Also, if they are required to pay me for that time, would they have to pay me for the weeks they didn't pay me over the past year, and do they have to add interest?

    Thank you in advance for your time.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    284

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    This is an over simplification but basically the employer can dock you for complete days voluntarily not worked and complete workweeks involuntarily (or voluntarily) not worked. Plus a few other things. I will include a pointer to the actual regulation below.

    http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/541.602

    Past that, absent a contract, each pay period stands alone (FLSA law) and the so-called annual rate legally almost never means anything.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    Thank you for the quick response. So even though it says

    " If the employee is ready, willing and able to work, deductions may not be made for time when work is not available."

    I am not eligible for pay? The fact that I signed an agreement saying they will pay me X amount over 52 pay periods in a year means nothing?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    They are not REQUIRED to pay you for either the time the company is closed OR for holiday days, assuming that you do no work at all during the entire work week. There are certain instances in which an exempt employee CAN go unpaid, but those instances are limited. Let me give you an example of my own employer.

    The workweek is, like that of many employers, 12:01 on Sunday morning to 11:59 pm on Saturday. Christmas is on a Thursday this year; we close at noon on Wednesday the 24th and do not reopen until Monday January 5. In actuality, all employees get paid for all that time. However, if they wanted to pay only according to the letter of the law, non-exempt employees would get no pay at all for that time. Exempt employees who work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning would have to be paid their full salary for the first week, but would not have to be paid anything at all for the second week since they would perform no work at all during the week. It WOULD be 100% legal for the employer to require that the part of the week when no work is done, be applied to vacation time, and they could force the use of vacation with or without the permission or even the knowledge of the exempt employee. But for that first week, assuming that he worked any part of the 2 1/2 days when the company was closed, he would have to be paid for the first week, but not the second.

    There is no requirement in the law that exempt employees be paid for holidays per se. What the law says is that there are only limited circumstances under which an exempt employee can only be paid for a partial week. So if there is a holiday and he works the rest of the week, he has to be paid for the holiday too. But if he takes the entire week off and does not work at all, he does not have to be paid for the holiday. So in my example above, the exempt employee would have to be paid for Christmas (and the half of Christmas Eve that the company is closed) but not for New Years' Day.

    Clear as mud?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    Clear as mud. Thank you for the explanation. It just sucks they promised me X amount knowing that I wouldn't get it.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    Does the agreement show:

    a.) 52,000 per year
    b.) 1000 per week
    c.) 52,000 to be paid in 52 weekly installments of $1000 each
    d.) something else?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    I don't have it in front of me for exact verbage, but I am pretty sure it's pretty close to 52,000 in 52 installments.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Salaried Exempt Employee Not Being Payed Full Salary

    If so, you could try showing it to a local attorney to see if it is enforceable. However, be aware that by doing so, you will be drawing a target on your back. It will be very much a career limiting move. They are NOT in violation of any laws and they are quite right that if you do no work in a full work week you do not have to be paid. I can pretty much guarantee that if you approach the employer with the argument that they're required to pay you for this time because of the way the agreement is worded, you won't be working there by this time next year. But if it's that important to you, show it to an attorney and see what he thinks.

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