AboutBrian Phillips Expertise Can answer questions in areas of wage and hour, OT, Fair labor standards, FMLA, COBRA, Recruiting, Interviewing techniques, employee manuals, HRIS rollout, Employee Leasing or Staffing company cost analysis, bacon, eggs, and more. Essentially a well rounded HR generalist who operates Harvis, Inc., a human resource consulting and service business based in Northeastern Pennsylvania "NEPA". www.harvis.org
Experience As owner and chief consultant at Harvis, Inc., we provide Human Resource services and structure to small businesses without their own HR department. We make workplaces better by becoming that 1/2 person they need to help handle HR responsibilities on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Formerly responsible for all Human Resource activity for a staffing company with 2,500 annual employees as well as an employee leasing / PEO business with 1,500 annual employees. Designed and implemented the HR structure to support hundreds of clients in excess of $ 500 million in payroll volume over career in Human Resources.
Organizations * Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry - current member and former co-chairperson for the HR Taskforce;
* Tri-County Personnel Association (oldest continuous operating "HR" association in the nation (we think));
* Back Mountain Business Association - Dallas PA
* Business Association of the Greater Shickshinny Area - Shickshinny PA
Publications Northeast PA Business Journal - interviewed for various articles
HR Insights - Chamber of Commerce HR publication
Education/Credentials Bloomsburg State University - 1993 BS Marketing located in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania and Luzerne County Community College - 1991 Business Administration located in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania
Awards and Honors * Better than average - 20/10 vision
* Bestowed with an occasional "Thank You" from clients and their employees.
Question Due to slow business, we have found it necessary to cut hours of a salaried employee. Can we reduce his salary accordingly? If not, can we make him an hourly employee? Our business is in Illinois.
Answer Debbie,
NO you can't per se reduce salary accordingly based on the hours worked. I am not mincing your words- well, yes, maybe I am a little... let me explain... here's how how you can either pay the person less and keep them working a "full week", or convert them to hourly.
When an employer chooses to pay someone a salary in the true sense of the definition, the number of hours worked up to and over 40 hours in a week are not the important issue. The hours worked by a salary OT exempt person are "incidental" to the workload of the position which is in most cases believed to be a typical 8 hour day by most people. In that regard, salaries are generally thought to be based on 2080 work hours in a year ( 8 hours a day x 5 days x 52 weeks) Thereby, a person paid a $ 40,000 salary goes home and divides that by 2080 and says to themselves: I make $ 19.23 per hour. Maybe but not really...
If your employee is exempt from overtime and is truly qualified as an administrative, executive, professional,computer or outside sales person according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) then the any number of hours they work is a mute issue.
If a person is paid any salary above the required $ 455 per week, the number of hours they work is merely incidental. So, as long as the salary is above $455.00 per WEEK, they can work 10, 15, 31, 45, 70 hours per week. Salary is Salary.
If money is the issue, and you feel like the bad guy for asking the person making $ 700 per week to accept $ 500 , but as a salaried person still work the same hours, then the best arrangement is to convert them to hourly.
So, yes, I minced your words (sorry) you can reduce the SALARY AMOUNT to any amount $455 or higher but it is not correlated with the number of hours the person is actually working NOW. Other choice is to make them an hourly employee- and overtime will apply to 40 hours or more per week. Whatever you do, put the "new deal" in writing and have the employee sign off to "agree" . Give at least one full pay cycle of this notice. Many states require employees receive notice of pay changes in writing and by continuing to work, they "accept" the change- but a signature is also good to have. If they refuse the change, generally they must resign or quit.
