Human Resource Blog

Wage and Hour

Can an exempt employee be disciplined for attendance issues even when they are paid for their time when leaving early or are tardy? What if this is excessive and sets a bad example? I recently read that you cannot discipline for attendance for coming late or leaving early forless then a full day.

It seems that you completely misunderstood the law regarding exempt employees.

As the employer, you set the standard work week for exempt employees. You absolutely can discipline or terminate an exempt employee for coming in late or leaving early — even if the employee does it only once.

Under federal law (and state law in some cases) an exempt employee who works a portion of the day must be paid his or her full salary for the day. Even if the exempt employee works only 15 minutes, he or she is entitled to payment for the full day, (Exceptions apply if the employee is unavailable to work for one or more full days due to illness, personal business. Exceptions also apply for FMLA and ADA.) However, there is nothing in that law that would prevent you from disciplining the employee — as long as he or she is paid for the full day.

As an employer, you can certainly issue a verbal or written reprimand to any exempt employee who does not meet your attendance standards. You can even suspend the employee without pay for one or more full days, or terminate the employee. 

Attendance is a matter of company policy, even for exempt employees. Some employers permit exempt employees to come and go as they please, as long as the work is done. Other employers expect exempt employees to work regular business hours, and discipline or terminate them if they do not. This is entirely legal.