Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: salary wage deductions

I hate to say this, but it depends.

It depends on whether you have statutes or ordinances governing your pay (such as government workers) or whether you are a union member and have a collective bargaining agreement governing this, or whether you work for a business and have policies, and etc. It also may depend on how long you have been on the job - often there are different rules that apply to new employees versus employees who have worked somewhere for a certain length of time.

If you have questions, the starting point is reviewing any documents you have from your employer that discusses these issues. If you have a personnel office, you can ask about whether there are any laws or rules governing this.

Otherwise, I know of no laws covering this issue for all salaried workers.

If you have additional questions, feel free to write again. You may also want to contact the wage and hour division of the State Labor & Industries Dept for more information.

Sincerely,

Merry A. Kogut

Re: salary wage deductions

Merry is right that it really does depend, not only on the things she mentioned but on some other things, too. Of course, if you are a union member with a collective bargaining agreement, that determines your rights. If the employer has sick leave policies in place, those sick leave policies determine your rights.

Whether your are a salaried employee or not does not really determine anything. The key question is whether you are an exempt employee or not. Exempt employees include managers, professionals, computer software designers, and some other defined groups. The good news is, if you are an exempt employee AND your employer does not have a sick leave policy, you must be paid for sick leave within certain limits. The bad news is, if you are exempt, you can be worked long hours without overtime pay. If you are not exempt, and your employer has no sick leave policy, your employer is not required to pay you for sick leave.

If you are not sure if you are an exempt employee, check with Labor and Industries, or write again with your job description. Hope this helps.