Labor Law and the Salaried Employee

Salaried employees are, for the most part, at therate, though in some cases of blatant abuse of a
mercy of their employer. These employees are undersalaried employee, that has been a decision handed
contract to their employer for a set amount of moneydown by the court.
on a set pay day. The labor laws, in this case, areWhen it comes to sick and vacation days, a salaried
somewhat ambiguous, so many of these cases go toemployee is compensated when he or she has the
court or are decided by arbitrators and no one maysick or vacation days available. By the same token
be found at fault or "guilty" unless the excesses arethat your employer is required to pay you the set
blatant and obviously knowingly carried out.amount for a week in which you worked the set
Salaried employees are not usually required to keephours, if you do not have sick days or vacation days
track of their hours, though for reporting instances, youravailable, your employer is not required to compensate
employer may require that. Some employers do thisyou for hours you did not work. In this case, your
as a means to measure productivity and will requiresalary is usually computed to a daily or hourly rate, and
complex descriptions of the work done as well as thethat amount of money can be withheld from your
number of hours or even minutes spent on each task.salary. This normally only happens with cases where
This is legal, though on the side you may want tothe employer feels that the employee is abusing their
make notes of how much time it took you to completesalaried position. On the other hand, if you are regularly
this requirement, along with your regular work. It willa very reliable employee who puts in more than their
subtract from your productivity level if you must spendagreed upon salaried hours in the majority of weeks,
minutes recounting your work every time that youbut then has to take a sick day once or twice during a
perform a task. It is also wise, if you are entering into apay period and your employer decides to dock your
salaried position, that it is clearly stated how manypay, regardless of the number of additional hours that
hours you are expected to work during a regular workyou have voluntarily worked, you may have a case.
week. Since you are not punching a time clock or fillingThese cases are much more difficult to bring, but if a
out a time sheet, you must keep meticulous records ifpattern of this type of abuse can be tracked and
you regularly work over the number of hours originallyattested to, your employer may be required to
agreed upon. For example, if your contract states orcompensate you and will also be required to mend his
you know that you are required to work 50 hours aor her ways.
week, but you regularly put in 60 or 70 hours a weekYes, it's true that salaried employees do not
with no additional compensation, then you have thenecessarily receive the same protection as an hourly
right to approach your employer about it and in theemployee, but it is also true that blatant disregard of
case that you and he or she disagree, you also canthe labor laws can land your employer in hot water.
take them to court for reimbursement for thoseFor the most part, salaried employees enter into
additional hours. But, in most cases, it is imperative thatcontracts for which they feel adequately paid for the
your contract spells out the expectations and if youwork they perform. It is really up to you, as an
are looking at one or two weeks over the course of aemployee, and up to your employer to honestly carry
year, do not expect a ruling in your favor. You alsoout your contract in the way that it was intended
cannot expect to be compensated at the overtimewhen it was entered into.