how is time off supposed to work when you’re salaried?

A reader writes:

I’ve had salaried jobs for most of my career now. I’ve been exempt for all of these years, I think.

As best I can tell from what you’ve said and other places, if you’re exempt, you get the same money every week, even if you work less than 40 hours (or more than 40).

So, how does PTO really work there?

I’ve always felt like I should mark myself out on PTO for the two-hour doctor appointment or leaving early for happy hour. Lately, I’ve switched my tune and figure if my job doesn’t have 40 hours or more work to do in a week, it’s okay to duck out for an appointment or drinks. I’m getting my job done, I’m earning my salary.

Recently, my husband was told that he can’t flex his hours for a doctor appointment — that he has to take it as PTO, even if he works extra time regularly (and specifically on weeks he takes time to go to the doctor). I think part of the problem for him might be that his boss is a nurse (hourly shift worker culture where you go home after your eight hours and someone else picks up the work) and he is a social worker (salaried, gets the work done in usually more than 40 hours a week).

My question is, how should it work?

I tend to think that the letter of the law for salaried workers sides with “as long as you get the work done, your hours don’t matter,” right?

And how does vacation factor in there? I think you’ve said that the rule is “as long as you’ve worked in that week, you get paid for the whole week”? Or maybe it’s on a day by day basis? If I take four days off in a week, should I get my whole paycheck or just one day of pay?

First, an explanation of exempt and non-exempt for anyone reading who isn’t sure: The federal government divides all workers into two categories: exempt workers, who don’t need to receive overtime pay, and non-exempt workers, who must receive overtime pay. The exempt category is reserved for relatively high-level executive or professional work, outside sales employees, the “learned professions,” and a few other narrowly defined categories. To be considered exempt, you have to meet that duties test, plus be paid on a salary basis (meaning that you’re paid the same amount every week, even when you miss work) and earn at least $35,568 per year.

Here’s the thing, though: the law only cares about your pay. It doesn’t care how your employer handles vacation time; it cares only that (a) if you’re exempt, you receive your full salary for every week where you perform any amount of work (even if you only worked half a day that week), and (b) if you’re non-exempt, you receive overtime pay — time and a half — for all hours over 40 you worked in the week. That’s it. It’s completely silent on when and how your employer can make you use PTO, as long as you are paid for that time. If your employer wants to tell exempt employees that they have to use PTO for every hour they’re not at work, they can do that. It’s a crappy way to operate if you’re ever expected to work extra hours in a week (which you will be doing without extra pay since you’re exempt), but it’s legal.

Sometimes people think that if you’re exempt, your employer can’t require you to work specific hours … but they can. An employer can say exempt workers must work 9-5, or 8-4, or for that matter 7-6. They can say you must work a minimum of 40 hours every week, or 43 hours, or 50 hours. If you don’t, they can charge you PTO for any “missing” hours, and they could discipline you or even fire you over not complying. They just need to pay you the same salary every week, regardless.

So no, the law for exempt workers does not say that as long as you get the work done, your hours don’t matter.

That’s the law. But there’s also the question of good practice. In general, good employers will give exempt workers some leeway with their hours (to the extent their job duties allow), recognizing that in many jobs the work ebbs and flows and there might be some weeks where you work more hours and some where you work fewer, and in general you’re being paid to get the job done more than you’re being paid to simply work to a time clock.

There are, of course, lots of employers that don’t function that way.

So it varies. Some employers tell people they don’t need to take PTO for doctor’s appointments or the occasional late arrival/early departure. Some require that you do. If you’re in a job where you do sometimes need to put in extra hours, it’s BS to charge you PTO when you occasionally work fewer, but some jobs do, and that’s legal.