Time Cards for salaried exempt people?
jerzal
34 Posts
Do employees that are salaried exempt ee's have to fill out a time card showing their actual hours worked?
Right now only our hourly ppl. are filling out time cards. But I wonder if we have to have the salaried folks do it too, as part of our recordkeeping obligations.
We are in PA.
Thanks!
Right now only our hourly ppl. are filling out time cards. But I wonder if we have to have the salaried folks do it too, as part of our recordkeeping obligations.
We are in PA.
Thanks!
Comments
I think the important thing to remember is that if a salaried exempt employee turns a time card in and it says he work 74 hours (not the full 80 hours) then you can not dock their salary. You can dock their vacation leave but not their salary.
Hope this helps.
Jenn
Just curious... what system do you use to keep track of it all?
I am in the process of researching an inexpensive, but good HR software that can keep track of vacation, PTO, exempt attendance, etc...
At the moment, each exempt employee hands in a spreadsheet of their attendance very 2 weeks and we keep track of it that way.
Thanks.
Remember two things: 1) If you have good loyal and happy employees, they are not going to exaggerate the time they have worked. 2) An honest employee is just as likely to forget some time worked as they are to remember it. In that case, a record of hours worked might put you in a worse position than if there had never been one.
If it makes you feel better, you might consider having the employees keeping track of such time but not submitting it to payroll. I would think making sure you have your employees properly classified would be easier in the long run though.
Good luck!
Tony Kessler, director of editorial
M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC
(615) 661-0249 ext. 8068
As a matter of law, no, you do not have to keep time records on exempt employees. The work ethic of your ee's will dictate if keeping a record is necessary.
If you do find it necessary to simply prove of exempt employees are showing up on time, etc. then by all means do it. However, be very, very careful about docking vacation time if they are a few hours short one week, and work a ton of hours over 40 the next. It makes for very bad morale.
The law says you don't have to pay exempt ees overtime, but you have to be careful in establishing a practice that may look like they are being paid as a non-exempt employee; mainly because the law doesn't state that supervisor's MUST be on salary.
We keep track of exempt ee's hours worked. NOT for payroll purposes, but because we can track hours worked for FMLA eligibility and 401(k) participation. They understand that the hours are tracked for this purpose and do not come into play when calculating payroll.
As a side benefit, it is also helpful when discussing with the employee their time habits (i.e. consistently late/leaving early, etc.).
We have everyone punch in and out with a hand-scan machine whether exempt or non-exempt. It's called ETime and they partner with ADP.
This electronic method produces a timesheet (either electronic or paper or both if you wish) for each employee and records time on the premises, and absences as well. This allows us to track benefit time more accurately.
It does not interfere with the exempt status of a person to keep a record of time. In fact, it is the obligation of the employer to keep records concerning time, not the employee's.
The point is, you may not use these records adversely to treat the exempt person like an hourly wage earner.
For our needs, we print the biweekly records each pay period and therefore can use them for research should an employee differ with our calculation of benefits hours available (or used).