Exempt Employee - Is it legal to deduct for coming late.

[markNY]

What is the name of your state? New York.

I am what is classified as an exempt employee. I work for a Health Care office as a manager. I get a weekly paycheck no matter how many hours I put in.
About 2 months ago, our branch manager enforced all exempt employees to use the time clock. He explained its for tracking purposes only.
About 2 weeks ago, during a regular meeting, he announced that effective immediately, all employees (even the exempt) who come after 9:00am will be deducted off their weekly paycheck, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour etc.
IS THIS LEGAL?!?!
Even if you work that day 8 or more hours. Last week 1 day I came in at 9:59am, when I got my check it had a "Late Deduction" in the amount of 1/2 hour off my check. (My check is processed every week as 40 hours x the divided weekly salary by 40). It had worked 40 hours, however it had that deduction. PLEASE HELP.

 

[Beth3]

No, it is definitely not legal. The first time your employer deducts PAY from your paycheck for coming in late they will be violating federal and state law.
It is legal to keep your paycheck whole and deduct the time from any paid time off bank (i.e. vacation or similar) your employer provides however.

Do you have an human resources representative or someone else in management you can discuss this with? I suggest you contact him or her and inform them of the branch manager's plan and that if he follows through, it will be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It's possible the branch manager is ignorant of the requirements of the law and HR/company management will FAR prefer to straighten him out before he does anything stupid. They'll appreciate your giving them a "heads up" and allowing them an opportunity to address this before the law is violated. I'm in HR and I certainly would.

 

[markNY]

Thanx for you knowledge, my HR director doesn't want to get invloved, do you have a web link where I can print out the NYS LABOR LAW or something more solid to prove that its illegal. Thanx.

 

[cbg]

It's more than just New York labor Law. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a Federal law which covers all employers (or so close to all it's not worth debating) in all states.

You can find the FLSA at www.dol.gov. But if you're looking for a statement that says outright, "An employer may not dock an exempt employee for coming in late", I don't think you're going to find it. What you're going to find is a list of reasons when an exempt employee CAN be docked. If the reason does not appear on that list, you can't be docked for it. The ONLY time an exempt employee can be docked PAY in partial day increments is if the employee is on intermittant FMLA and only worked a partial day. In that situation, and in that situation ONLY, the exempt employee can be paid only for the time they actually worked. While there are a very few other circumstances in which an exempt employee CAN have their pay docked, in ALL of them it MUST be in full day increments. In other words, if you worked any part of a day, even five minutes, you MUST be paid for the entire day.

As Beth said, in all but two states (and NY is NOT one of the two) it is legal for them to dock your vacation, sick or personal time as long as your paycheck remains whole.

BTW, it IS legal for them to discipline an exempt employee for coming in late - just not by docking.

 

[Beth3]

my HR director doesn't want to get invloved Yowsa.

I can scarcely imagine a more pertinent issue for the HR Director involve him- or herself in than preventing a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Oh, well. The first time your pay is docked for coming in late, by all means contact either your State's Department of Labor or the federal Department of Labor (202-693-4650.)

If your HR Director is such a nincompoop or 'fraidy cat that he won't address this, then your company deserves for the DOL to come callin'.

 

[You Are Guilty]

Don't know what county you're in, so here's the info for the main office in Albany - they can direct you to the correct branch office:
New York State Department of Labor: (518) 457-9000

 

[markNY]

Thank you so very much for your advise and help, I will definately take your provided information into action. Again, thank you all for this valuable inforamtion.