Expert: Shirley McAllister, CPP, PHR - 10/9/2009

Question
Hi Shirley,

I live in Illinois and work as an assistant manager of a restaurant that is privately owned with approx. 200 locations nationwide. I can not hire or fire employees, that is the GM and human resources call. I am a salary worker and scheduled to work 50hrs per week, punched on a time clock. When I recieve my bi-weekly paycheck, it shows that I have worked only 80hrs; it should say 100hrs. All management paychecks are like this, is it legal? Why would the company do this? Thanks for your time.

Answer
They are paying you as a salaried exempt employee. Salaried exempt employees are not eligible for overtime. They are paid a salary for doing their job and their salary is the same every payday.

If you feel you are not salaried exempt you can ask HR to reclassify your job as hourly or if they will not than you can call the Department of Labor and ask them to check to see if your job is misclassified. If it is they will have the company reclassify it to hourly, if it is not than you will be paid as salaried exempt.

Shirley