I’m on a salary, not an hourly rate. I left about three hours early one afternoon and my next paycheck came up a whole day short. Can they do that?

The salary-basis rules live in the part of the regulations that defines who is exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay, and being paid a salary is only one of the things that has to be true.

Fact Sheet #17A opens by saying it “provides general information on the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay provided by Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA as defined by Regulations, 29 C.F.R. Part 541,” and states flatly: “Job titles do not determine exempt status.” It also says: “The exemptions do not apply to manual laborers or other ‘blue-collar’ workers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy.”

A worker paid a set amount every fortnight is therefore not automatically inside these rules. A worker outside them is covered by the ordinary minimum wage and overtime rules instead — a different question with a different answer.

29 CFR 541.602, headed “Salary basis,” says at paragraph (a): “An employee will be considered to be paid on a ‘salary basis’ within the meaning of this part if the employee regularly receives each pay period on a weekly, or less frequent basis, a predetermined amount constituting all or part of the employee’s compensation, which amount is not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed.”

Paragraph (a)(1) carries the week-level rule together with its own scope clause: “Subject to the exceptions provided in paragraph (b) of this section, an exempt employee must receive the full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked.”

Paragraph (b) opens: “Exceptions. The prohibition against deductions from pay in the salary basis requirement is subject to the following exceptions:” and the first of those exceptions reads: “Deductions from pay may be made when an exempt employee is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons, other than sickness or disability.”

Fact Sheet #17G, under the heading “Circumstances in Which the Employer May Make Deductions from Pay,” says: “Deductions from pay are permissible when an exempt employee: is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons other than sickness or disability; for absences of one or more full days due to sickness or disability if the deduction is made in accordance with a bona fide plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for salary lost due to illness; to offset amounts employees receive as jury or witness fees, or for military pay; for penalties imposed in good faith for infractions of safety rules of major significance; or for unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days imposed in good faith for workplace conduct rule infractions.”

The same fact sheet adds: “Also, an employer is not required to pay the full salary in the initial or terminal week of employment, or for weeks in which an exempt employee takes unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.” And on time when there is no work to do, it says: “If the employee is ready, willing and able to work, deductions may not be made for time when work is not available.”

The full set of exceptions sits in paragraph (b) of the regulation itself, so that is the text worth reading rather than any summary of it.

Fact Sheet #70 answers the question “Can an employer reduce the leave of a salaried exempt employee?” this way: “An employer can substitute or reduce an exempt employee’s accrued leave (or run a negative leave balance) for the time an employee is absent from work, even if it is less than a full day and even if the absence is directed by the employer because of lack of work, without affecting the salary basis payment, provided that the employee still receives payment equal to the employee’s predetermined salary in any week in which any work is performed even if the employee has no leave remaining.”

The same fact sheet, answering whether a salary can be reduced in a business slowdown, puts the part-day point in one line: “Salary deductions are generally not permissible if the employee works less than a full day.”

That is why the leave column on a pay stub is worth writing down next to the pay figure — they can tell two different stories about the same afternoon.

Fact Sheet #17G says: “The employer will lose the exemption if it has an ‘actual practice’ of making improper deductions from salary,” and: “If an ‘actual practice’ is found, the exemption is lost during the time period of the deductions for employees in the same job classification working for the same managers responsible for the improper deductions.”

It also sets out a safe harbour for employers with a communicated policy, reimbursement and a good-faith commitment to comply.

This page describes the general federal rule and cannot say which of these fits any particular job. State law is often part of the honest answer: some states run their own overtime-exemption rules and their own limits on deductions from pay, and they can be stricter than the federal floor.