Can my employer not pay me for 8 hours of actual work on a holiday week because I received 8 hours of holiday pay?
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Can my employer not pay me for 8 hours of actual work on a holiday week because I received 8 hours of holiday pay?
I am an exempt salaried employee, I have to clock in an out like an hourly
employee. The week of Labor Day I worked Tuesday through Friday, clocked in and out each day and worked over 40 hours. Now my employer says they are
saving those 8 hours for me to use later for a day off that I previously would
have had as a paid day off anyway the Friday after Thanksgiving. I would
just like to know if this is legal for them to do?
Asked on October 11, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
First, if you have to clock in and out, you are not exempt if they base your pay on that: salaried employees are paid the same amount for any day they work, regardless of hours worked. (Salaried hours may be tracked to bill clients for projects, to evaluate output or throughput, etc., but not for pay.) If your hours go into determining your pay, you are hourly, not salaried; and if hourly, you are not exempt and must paid overtime when working more than 40 hours in a week.
Second, if you were hourly--if your employer is tracking your hours for pay purposes, as your employer seems to be doing--you must be paid for all hours worked for the week you worked them; they can't be saved for later. The employer does not have to count holiday pay for overtime purposes, so if you have 8 holiday hours from Monday and worked, say, 40 hours Tues - Friday, you would get 48 hours of straight pay for that week, not 40 hours staight pay and 8 hours overtime.
Third, if your employer is not actually basing your pay on hours worked, so you should be treated still as a salaried employee, you must get your daily salary (1/5 your weekly salary) for each of Tuesday through Thursday and whatever holiday pay your employer was giving you for Monday. Again, your employer cannot save any days for later: salaried employees are paid for all days worked and for holidays as per company policy for *that* week, without time being "banked" for later.
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