Can my employer make me a salaried employee to avoid paying me overtime? and then when I have to take off 2 hours early for a dental appointment, can they deduct time from my annual leave to pay my full salary.
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Can my employer make me a salaried employee to avoid paying me overtime? and then when I have to take off 2 hours early for a dental appointment, can they deduct time from my annual leave to pay my full salary.
I am a social worker and the company I work for has been adding more tasks to our job to the extent that they know we won’t always be able to complete these in 40 hours. Currently they provide us flex-time but they are about to do away with that and make us salaried employees to avoid giving flex-time and overtime. If I work 45 hours 1 week and 36 the next we predictek how do they get to deduct 4 hours of my annual leave to pay me my weekly salary? That seems like they are getting to treat me as a hourly worker when it benefits them and a salaried employee when it hurts me (i.e. when I work overtime they don’t have to compensate me). I just don’t understand how this is fair for the employee.
Asked on October 25, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Alabama
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
1) Yes, an employer may change you from hourly to salaried at will, unless you have a written employment contract guarantying or setting your hourly status.
2) However, just being salaried does not automatically mean you don't get overtime. To be exempt from overtime, you must a) earn a high-enough salary (at least $455/week) and b) your job must meet at least one of the overtime exemptions found on the U.S. Dept. of Labor website, under overtime. Look the up and compare to your job; if your job does not meet the criteria for at least one exemption, you are entitled to overtime when you work more than 40 hours in a week, even if salaried.
3) If they reduce your pay if you are short hours, or force you to use PTO to make up for an hourly shortly, you are NOT salaried--salaried workers do not have their time tracked for salary purposes. (If your employer feels you are not working hard enough, you may be terminated, but that's a different story.) If time is tracked for pay purposes, you are hourly--and if hourly, you must be paid overtime and paid for all hours worked.
From what you write, you may well have a wage and hour claim: contact the federal Department of Labor if they go ahead and do what you indicate.
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