Human Resource Blog

Exempt Personal Time Posting

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Our company recently changed the paid time off (PTO) policy. Previously salaried exempt employees entered PTO in either day or half day increments. Now the same employees enter PTO in hour increments.

The company has a no “comp” time policy in place, which means that lost time can not be made up. In most cases employees work in excess of 8 hours a day, without overtime (as they are exempt). My question is: does this violate any labor laws?

For example, April works 7 hours on Monday, 9 hours on Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri. She has to enter 1 hour PTO taken, even though she has worked a total of 43 hours that week.

Does it violate any labor law for a salaried-exempt employee to work more than 40 hours per week without being paid overtime, or receiving “comp” time? The answer is no. In fact, under federal law, it is illegal for a private employer to grant “comp” time instead of paying overtime. The employee is not entitled to overtime pay, because he or she is salary exempt.

The PTO policy that you describe probably does not violate any federal law. As long as the salaried-exempt employee’s paycheck is the same amount each week, the employer can set any PTO policies that it chooses. If April used all of her PTO, and her salary was reduced because she worked a 7-hour day, that would be a violation of the federal FLSA.

However, the employer would be well within his or her rights to discipline or terminate April for poor attendance. As long as April was paid her full salary, that would be entirely legal. You are assuming that in the US 40 hours is considered a “standard work week.” There is no such thing.Some countries such as France set a standard work week by law — the US does not. An employer in the US can require workers to put in 70, 80 or even 100 hours per week, every week. As long as the employer complies with the federal overtime law, that’s entirely legal.