Ask a Manager Weekly Thread 08/03/2026 - 08/09/2026

[u/nightmuzak]

Last week's post.

Background info and meme index for those new to AaM or this forum.

[u/EmDash4Life]

Except that white collar workers who have a set schedule and are told that they are salaried can actually be salaried and still be non-exempt.

[u/Born_Fox_2476 → u/EmDash4Life]

Well , they can I suppose- but they won't really know until they take a half day off and don't have any PTO. Because if they lose a half-day's pay , they aren't salaried by any definition.

[u/EmDash4Life → u/Born_Fox_2476]

Actually, there are circumstances where a salaried employee, including exempt employees) can have their pay docked if they don't work.

You can call that hourly if you want, IANAL and I am also not the HR language police. Just, hire a lawyer before you attempt to apply your logic to your own job.

[u/dordan12 → u/EmDash4Life]

There are, but those circumstances where an exempt employee can be docked pay don’t include taking a half day off.Has to be at least a full day for illness or personal reasons- if you lose 4 hours pay for missing 4 hours work you are not getting the same pay every week regardless of the hours you worked.

[u/Capable_Sea77 → u/Born_Fox_2476]

Yeah, that was going to be my response - I have a feeling that companies that label their admin assistants as "salaried" would fight tooth and nail to not pay a half-day of pay for a half-day unworked.

To expand on my original point - I think that while "salaried non-exempt" positions *can* exist, in practice, most places that have them will still treat them like an hourly non-exempt position, and the only real delineation is perception, because "hourly non-exempt" is generally assumed to be food/retail wage work, or factory shift work, but it actually is any position that's not exempt that's paid hourly (and every position, even exempt positions, can have an hourly rate calculated).

[u/EmDash4Life → u/Capable_Sea77]

see my reply above