Human Resource Blog

exempt employees and the 1,250 hours rule

I have an exempt employee that was out on a leave for 37 weeks under the FMLA and company extended leave policies within the last 12 months. Now this employee is requesting another leave. If I base it on the 40.0 hours that the company uses to pay salaried employees, the employee does not make the 1250 hours. Now if I use actual time worked (55 hours a week) the employee would be eligible for the leave 10 weeks sooner. I searched and searched and it all addresses hourly employees, not salaried for calculating the 1250 hours. Which one is the most accurate to use. The automatic “time card” for the employee since he is not eligible for over time or do I calculate it on the actual number of hours worked

The 1.250 hour rule is based on the actual hours worked, so an exempt employee who works 75 hours per week would reach the 1,250-hour level in about 17 weeks.

However, simply working 1,250 hours does not *reset* the FMLA period. Suppose Sally has used all 12 weeks of unpaid leave under FMLA. She returns to work, and 17 weeks later she has worked 1, 250 hours. Sally will still not qualify for additional FMLA until a full year has elapsed since her initial FMLA absence (in most cases.)

There are 4 different methods of calculating the 12-month FMLA period. A company may use any one of those methods, as long as it is used consistently. However, none of those methods automatically permits additional leave after working 1,250 hours unless the employee is also in a different FMLA year.

Because your company permits additional extended leave, but we do not have details on that plan, we cannot address those policies.