Legal Question in Employment Law in Tennessee

Re: Salaried employee pay

The answer to your question is maybe. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the question you have posed is whether being salaried entitles your employer to dock pay for missed days.

Deductions from pay are permissible when an exempt employee: is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons other than sickness or disability; for absences of one or more full days due to sickness or disability if the deduction is made in accordance with a bona fide plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for salary lost due to illness; to offset amounts employees receive as jury or witness fees, or for military pay; for penalties imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance; or for unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days imposed in good faith for workplace conduct rule infractions. Also, an employer is not required to pay the full salary in the initial or terminal week of employment, or for weeks in which an exempt employee takes unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

If your employer has an actual practice of making improper deductions, it could have the effect of making you no longer exempt, thus entitling you to overtime wages for workweeks in which you work more than 40 hours.

If you would like to consult on this issue further, please contact me at [email protected]. Thank you.