Salaried Workers Can’t Be Docked for Lateness

Q: A recent Shop Talk column stated that employees must be paid their regular salaries “without regard to the number of hours they work” and that an employer “will pay a high price if it regularly docks salaried employees’ pay.”

What about a salaried employee who exceeds company policy for allowable vacation days and sick days? Can that worker be docked?

--A.M., Pasadena

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A: A company can require that salaried employees use vacation and sick pay when they are absent from work for a full day or part of a day. But once they have exhausted their paid time off, the employer cannot legally dock them for an absence of less than a full day.

In other words, salaried employees can be docked for absences of a full day, but they can never be docked for coming to work late, taking a long lunch or leaving early.

--Joseph L. Paller Jr.

Union, employee attorney

Gilbert & Sackman