Opinion ID: 603849
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Comp Time Policy

Text: 20 According to the Department of Labor's regulations, in certain circumstances, employers may pay exempt employees additional compensation along with a predetermined amount each pay period without automatically losing the employees' salaried status. 29 C.F.R. § 541.118(b). Some courts have stated, though, that overtime pay is generally inconsistent with a salaried status. Abshire v. Kern, 908 F.2d 483, 486 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1068, 111 S.Ct. 785, 112 L.Ed.2d 848 (1991); Brock v. Claridge Hotel & Casino, 846 F.2d 180, 184-85 (3d Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 925, 109 S.Ct. 307, 102 L.Ed.2d 326 (1989). But other courts have upheld overtime compensation for salaried employees in particular situations. See Pautlitz v. Naperville, 781 F.Supp. 1368, 1371 (N.D.Ill.1992) (holding that the better position in that case is to consider the additional pay a bonus scheme). We do not have to hold that overtime is always inconsistent with a salary because the negative comp time part of Rush's comp time policy, along with the overtime provision, help show that Klein was not paid on a salary basis. 21 Rush repeatedly maintains that because Klein's salary was never reduced if she left a shift early or came in late, as it was before the comp time policy, it was a full salary ... without regard to the number of days or hours worked. 29 C.F.R. § 541.118(a). Yet for every hour when she was late or left early, Klein had to use an hour of comp time from her comp time bank or else go into negative comp time. Of course, when a nurse is assigned a particular shift, she cannot simply arrive at work or leave whenever it pleases her; she must necessarily be there when her assigned shift begins and ends. 22 But the regulations have determined that a salaried employee is paid the same regardless of the number of hours worked. Id. An exempt employee's pay cannot be reduced for absences of less than a day according to the regulation's interpretations; permissible deductions are only for absences of a day or more. Id. § 541.118(a)(2)-(3). As the Second Circuit stated: Most courts that have addressed the issue have agreed that if an employer has a policy of reducing an employee's compensation for fractions of days that the employee is absent from work, then the employer may not invoke the ... exemption with regard to that employee. Martin v. Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., 949 F.2d 611, 615 (1991) (listing cases), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 298, 121 L.Ed.2d 222 (1992). 23 When Klein was forced to go into negative comp time, she may not have been actually paid less, but she was going into a form of debt since any later accumulated comp time had to pay off that debt. The nurses were discouraged from amassing too much negative comp time, and they could only take their comp time when the unit leader authorized it. Also significant is the fact that Klein's supervisors were not subject to this comp time policy. Cf. Abshire, 908 F.2d at 487 n. 2 (noting that overtime policy did not apply to higher ranked employees). Thus, this negative comp time is similar to docking an employee's pay because of the number of hours worked and is an important factor in our conclusion that Klein was not paid on a salary basis. See id. at 487 n. 3 (dictum) (employees could not qualify as salaried if leave time is reduced for absences less than a day even though pay is not reduced); Benzler v. Nevada, 804 F.Supp. 1303, 1306 (D.Nev.1992); Aaron v. Wichita, 797 F.Supp. 898, 907 (D.Kan.1992); Service Employees Int'l Union v. San Diego, 784 F.Supp. 1503, 1510 (S.D.Cal.1992).