Human Resource Blog

salaried employee

If the salaried employee misses full days because of bad weather, am I allowed to prorate her pay?

Whether or not you can prorate the exempt employees salary depends upon the circumstances. The federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay exempt workers their full salary for any payroll week in which the employee a) worked a portion of the week and b) was ready, willing and able to work the entire week. However, exempt employees who take one or more full days off for personal business need not be paid for those days. (Hourly employees need be paid only for the hours that they work.)

If you closed the business for one of more days during inclement weather, then you need to pay any exempt employees their usual salary for the entire week (provided they worked at least a few minutes during the week.) If you closed the business for the entire payroll week, and the exempt employee did no work at all the entire week, then she need not be paid for the that week. The same would be true if the business was open, but due to a reduction in revenue, you told the exempt employee not to come to work. In that case, the employee is taking time off at your direction, and she needs to be paid her entire weekly salary, if she worked at all during the week.

However, suppose the employee declined to come to work due to inclement weather. If the business was open and you had work for her to do, this is an entirely different situation. In that case, the employee is taking time off at her own request. This would be considered time off for *personal business.* As long as the employee missed one or more full days of work, you can prorate her pay. She need not be paid for the days that she missed.

However, if the employee did any work at all on those days away from work — even taking phone calls to answer questions or checking her email from home – then she worked on those days, and is entitled to her full salary for the entire day. (If she has vacation, sick leave or PTO time available, you can charge her for hours missed, but she must be paid her full salary.)

We will also add that it is up to the employer to determine if absences due to inclement weather are excused or not excused. Employees are responsible for having transportation to work, in all types of weather. In areas like Wisconsin and Illinois, any employee who missed a day of work due to weather would be disciplined for an unexcused absence. (The thought process is that if the weather is good enough for you to keep the business open, it is good enough for your employees to get to work.) However, in an area where it seldom snows, like Washington D.C. or South Carolina, snowy weather might be considered a valid reason for absence. This is particularly relevant, since in the past few months many areas of the southeast have experienced the worst winter in 25 years.