Here’s something most people don’t find out until it’s already happened to them.
If you’re a salaried employee classified as “exempt” — meaning your job is exempt from overtime rules under federal law — your employer is supposed to pay you your full salary for any week you do any work at all. That’s the whole deal. It’s called the salary basis rule, and it matters more than most people realize.
To qualify as exempt, you generally have to earn at least $684 per week (as of 2024) and meet certain job-duty requirements. If you clear that bar, your employer is generally required to pay your full salary regardless of how many hours you worked in a given week.
So what happens if you duck out two hours early on a Thursday? Or roll in late after a doctor’s appointment? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, deductions for partial-day absences generally violate the salary basis rule. Meaning: if your employer docks your pay for that, they’re likely breaking the law — as long as you did any work at all that day.
And the consequences for them can be serious. When an employer makes improper deductions, they risk losing your exempt classification. If that happens, you could be reclassified as a non-exempt employee — which means they may owe you overtime pay for hours you worked over 40 in a week, potentially going back some time. The exact amount depends on your situation.
There are several exceptions worth knowing. The rule doesn’t apply the same way during your first or last week of employment. Unpaid leave taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is handled differently. Employers can also make deductions for full-day absences for personal reasons when a bona fide paid-leave plan exists, for disciplinary suspensions related to serious workplace conduct violations, and for safety-rule infractions. These are legitimate carve-outs — so not every deduction is automatically illegal.
Also important: some states have their own rules about pay deductions that go beyond federal law. Your state may offer stronger protections — or different ones — so it’s worth checking your state’s labor laws in addition to federal rules.
If you think improper deductions are happening to you, document everything. Keep records of when deductions were made and what days you actually worked. This is exactly the kind of situation worth bringing to an employment lawyer or your state’s labor board.