People Leaders with Non-Exempt Employees
People leaders who supervise employees changing from exempt to non-exempt can help ensure that they experience a smooth transition to a new FLSA status. This information can help you manage a non-exempt, hourly employee on a biweekly pay frequency if you have not done so before.
Here are the key impacts for people leaders:
- You are responsible for reviewing and approving an employee’s time and absence. Employees will still be paid for time they submit; however, the people leader must review that time for accuracy and make corrections as needed. Refer to the Workday Time Tracking Overview.
- You are required to certify at the end of each month that all time has been reviewed and is accurate for your biweekly employees.
- You must approve overtime in advance of it being worked. Check with your unit’s HR professional on overtime approval practices.
- Share information with your team about your unit’s overtime practices, such as advance approval, tracking work outside of regular business hours (such as answering emails and phone calls during lunch or in the evenings), and timekeeping requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How is the FLSA status determined as exempt or non-exempt?
As an organization, Ohio State has made the decision to manage consistently at the job profile level. HR Compensation determines and assigns the FLSA status at the job profile level.
I have an employee whose job profile has been assigned an exempt FLSA status. The employee is currently full-time at an annual salary of $80,000 but wishes to reduce their FTE to 50%. How can we accommodate this request and allow the employee to remain in the same job profile?
The FLSA regulation does not permit employers to prorate the salary threshold requirement for individuals who are working less than 100% FTE. Therefore, the employee’s actual salary must remain at or above the salary threshold in order to be in an exempt from overtime job profile. In this scenario, the employee wishes to reduce their FTE to 50%, which makes the annual salary $40,000. The prorated salary for the FTE reduction is below the current FLSA salary threshold used by Ohio State of $43,900.
Options that are compliant include:
- Allow the employee to reduce their FTE to no less than 55%, which would result in the prorated salary based on the FTE to be at $44,000 and above the salary threshold. The employee could then remain in an exempt job profile.
You should work with your Human Resources professional on available options.
I have a non-exempt employee who reports to me. I called or texted the employee at 8 p.m., which is outside of their normal work hours, with a work-related question. This work-related question required 10 minutes of the employee’s time. Does this time need to be recorded in timekeeping?
People leaders are responsible for pre-approving any work outside of the employee’s normal work hours. In this scenario, the people leader contacting the employee signifies the pre-approval. Time spent outside of normal work hours to access a work network remotely or use a cell/smart phone to check email or communicate with others is considered work and must be reported in a timekeeping system. If the total number of hours worked are over 40 in the workweek, the employee must be paid overtime at a rate of one and one-half times their regular rate of pay or elect to earn compensatory time instead of overtime pay.
I have a non-exempt, non-bargaining unit employee. The employee’s normal hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The employee requests to work two extra hours on Wednesday from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m., which I have pre-approved. The employee has also asked to be allowed to flex their hours to work from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Thursday. Is this permissible and if so, how should it be reflected in timekeeping?
Yes, it is permissible if the work of the unit is not negatively impacted. The employee will record 10 regular hours for Wednesday and six regular hours for Thursday. Assuming that the total number of hours recorded does not exceed 40 for the workweek, no overtime pay would be required. However, the non-bargaining unit employee is automatically eligible to receive shift differential pay for the four hours (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) on Wednesday that fall within the second shift period.
Refer to the Scheduling Work and Overtime Policy 6.10 Frequently Asked Questions as well as the Manager Guide to Shift Differential Pay for details.
I have a non-exempt employee who will attend a conference on Thursday in another city that requires travel time. The conference begins at 8 a.m., which is the employee’s normal start time. The employee will drive but will not leave until after 5 p.m. on Wednesday and therefore, will not be actively working while they are traveling. Does the travel time count towards overtime and if so, how should it be reflected in timekeeping?
Based on FLSA, travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling. In this scenario, the employee is driving, therefore, the travel time is not considered work time and does not need to be entered into timekeeping.
I have a non-exempt employee whose normal work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and who will attend a three-day conference in another city that requires travel time. The conference begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. and ends Thursday at 5 p.m. The employee will travel via plane on Monday evening, leaving after 5 p.m. and will return on Thursday evening, after 5 p.m. The employee is not expected to complete any work while on the plane. Does the conference and travel time count towards overtime? How should the conference and travel time be reflected in timekeeping?
Based on FLSA:
- Travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling.
- Travel outside of regular hours is not considered work time.
In this scenario, the employee is not actively working while traveling and the travel time occurs outside the employee’s normal hours of work; therefore, it is not considered work time and does not need to be reflected in timekeeping.
The employee should record their regular hours for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday while engaged in work during the conference.
I have a non-exempt employee whose normal work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and who will attend a three-day conference in another city that requires travel time. The conference begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. and ends Thursday at 5 p.m. The employee will travel via plane on Monday, leaving at 2 p.m. and will return on Thursday evening, after 5 p.m. The employee is not expected to complete any work while on the plane. Does the conference and travel time count towards overtime? How should the conference and travel time be reflected in timekeeping?
Based on FLSA:
- Travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling.
- Travel during regular hours is considered work time.
In this scenario, the employee is not actively working while traveling; however, the travel time on Monday begins within the employee’s normal hours of work; therefore, the hours from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. should be reflected in timekeeping as regular hours. The travel time on Thursday occurs outside the employee’s normal hours of work; therefore, it is not considered work time and does not need to be reflected in timekeeping.
The employee should record their regular hours for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday while engaged in work during the conference.
I have a non-exempt employee whose normal work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and who will attend a three-day conference in another city that requires travel time. The conference begins Monday at 8 a.m. and ends Wednesday at 5 p.m. The employee will travel via plane on Sunday, leaving at 2 p.m. and will return on Wednesday evening, after 5 p.m. The employee is not expected to complete any work while on the plane. Does the conference and travel time count towards overtime? How should the conference and travel time be reflected in timekeeping?
Based on FLSA:
- Travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling.
- Travel during nonworking days is considered work time.
In this scenario, the employee is not actively working while traveling, and the travel time on Sunday is not within the employee’s work schedule. However, the travel time should be reflected in timekeeping as regular hours because the time on Sunday will automatically be eligible for weekend differential pay. The travel time on Wednesday occurs outside the employee’s normal hours of work; therefore, it is not considered work time and does not need to be reflected in timekeeping.
The time on Sunday will automatically be eligible for weekend differential pay. Refer to the Scheduling Work and Overtime Policy 6.10 Frequently Asked Questions as well as the Manager Guide to Shift Differential Pay for details.
The employee should record their regular hours for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday while engaged in work during the conference.
I have a non-exempt employee whose normal work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and who will be attend a three-day conference in another city that requires travel time. The conference begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. and ends Thursday at 5 p.m. The employee will travel via plane on Monday evening, leaving after 5 p.m. and will return on Thursday evening, after 5 p.m. The employee is expected to complete work while on the plane. Does the conference and travel time count towards overtime? How should the conference and travel time be reflected in timekeeping?
Based on FLSA:
- Travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling.
- Travel outside of regular hours is not considered work time.
In this scenario, the employee has been asked to complete work while traveling and although the travel time occurs outside the employee’s normal hours of work, it is considered work time and does need to be reflected in timekeeping. If the total number of hours worked are over 40 in the workweek, the employee must be compensated for any hours worked over 40 at a rate of one and one-half times their regular rate of pay or may elect to earn compensatory time instead of overtime pay.
The employee should record their regular hours for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday while engaged in work during the conference.
I have a non-exempt employee whose normal work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and who will chaperone a group of students on Monday and Tuesday. The group will travel by bus after 5 p.m. on each day. The employee is not actively working but does need to be available the entire time to address any needs or questions as they arise. Does the travel time count towards overtime?
Based on FLSA:
- Travel time is not considered work time as long as the employee is not actively working while traveling.
- Travel outside of regular hours is not considered work time
Time spent sleeping, as long as the employee has been provided adequate sleeping facilities and can usually enjoy an uninterrupted night’s sleep of up to eight hours is not considered work time.
In this scenario, the employee has not been asked to complete work while traveling and the travel time occurs outside the employee’s normal hours of work, therefore it does not need to be reflected in timekeeping. In addition, the employee is being provided with adequate sleeping facilities and can enjoy an uninterrupted night’s sleep and therefore, the time sleeping does not need to be entered into timekeeping.
The employee should record their regular hours for Monday and Tuesday.
