When Time Is Not Money (can they do that?) withholding of pay and compensation for extra events

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-ymcanthey0427.artapr27,0,710721.story

By CARRIE MASON DRAFFEN
April 27, 2008

I am an adjunct professor in the music department of a college. I am paid based on the number of classes and students I give private lessons to. So I'm surprised the college wants us to take sexual-harassment-prevention training without compensating us for the time. Supposedly, the college's insurance company is requiring the training, an hourlong online course. The university is threatening to withhold our pay if we do not complete the training. Is this legal?

Your letter touches on two aspects of labor law: the withholding of pay and compensation for extra events. There's good news and bad news.

First the good. The withholding may strike officials as an effective carrot-and-stick approach, but it's illegal. As a professor, you have a professional exempt status under labor laws. That means you are exempt from overtime. But your employer has to pay you a salary every pay period.

"You can't be exempt if you're not paid in the first place," said Irv Miljoner, of the U.S. Labor Department.

Having employees who are exempt benefits companies because they can work them any number of hours and not pay them for the extra time. But in exchange, the company has to pay the employee a salary.

"The exemption is contingent upon pay," Miljoner said.

But because you are exempt, the college doesn't have to pay you for all your hours worked.

"By virtue of that, you are exempt from any additional pay requirements," Miljoner said.

For more information, call the Labor Department at 866-487-2365.


Carrie Mason-Draffen is a columnist for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper. E-mail her at yourmoneytribune.com.