October 24, 2009
As you know, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, exempt employees must receive their full salary for any week in which they perform any work, without regard to the number of days or hours worked. However, there are some exceptions to this rule.
Sickness and disability deductions are an area of confusion for some employers. It is important to distinguish between deducting from an exempt employee’s paycheck and deducting from an employee’s allotted sick time. The employer may not deduct from an employee’s pay for less than a day’s absence for sickness or disability. But, if an employer, for example, provides an employee with 2 weeks of paid sick time by company policy and the employee has used up all of his or her sick time, an employer may deduct from the employee’s paycheck in full-day increments if the employee is out for a day or more. If the employee works for any part of a day, though, and is out sick the remainder of the day, the employer may not deduct from the employee’s paycheck.
On the other hand, employers may deduct from an employee’s allotted sick time under the company’s leave plan in increments of less than a day as long as the employee has not used up his or her paid sick time.
Based on this information deductions from the exempt employee’s paycheck for absences due to illness would be permissible, because he or she was absent for two full days.