Just when I need a quick answer I can't find the guidelines for deducting unpaid vacation time off from exempt employees.  Can someone help?

 We have a policy that we don't allow folks to take paid vacation time beyond what they have accrued.  Unofficially we will let them carry a small balance that can be made up in a pay period or two.  An exempt employee is traveling oversees and charged 59 more hours of vacation than he has accrued.  He has given us permission to deduct the time from his next pay check.

 

I think the regs say that we can deduct a full day's time but cannot deduct partial days, so I am proposing to deduct pay for 4 hrs, x 14 days (he works half time, hence the 4) which would be 56 hours, from his next biweekly paycheck, and also restore that to his overextended vacation account.  Does that sound right?

CarolL1999:

Just when I need a quick answer I can't find the guidelines for deducting unpaid vacation time off from exempt employees.  Can someone help?

 We have a policy that we don't allow folks to take paid vacation time beyond what they have accrued.  Unofficially we will let them carry a small balance that can be made up in a pay period or two.  An exempt employee is traveling oversees and charged 59 more hours of vacation than he has accrued.  He has given us permission to deduct the time from his next pay check.

 

I think the regs say that we can deduct a full day's time but cannot deduct partial days, so I am proposing to deduct pay for 4 hrs, x 14 days (he works half time, hence the 4) which would be 56 hours, from his next biweekly paycheck, and also restore that to his overextended vacation account.  Does that sound right?

 

I think you have to handle this either as an administrative error (accidental overpay) or as a loan.  In either case, there are state level considerations.  Your best bet would be to address this with counsel.  If you let us know what state you are in, perhaps someone can help you more directly.

Can you say for certain if you are handling this as a loan or as an accidental overpayment?

We have a similar situation that I thought was acceptable but maybe not. Exempt employee wants to take extended vacation, and time requested will exceed his available PTO hours. Why can't we simply allow this as leave without pay as long as the pay is reduced in 8 hour (for FT) increments? (State = VA if it matters). We do have a 'negative balance' policy, but it applies only to emergencies and/or family illness.

If a person requests vacation time beyond what they have acrued and your policy does not allow them to go into the negative, they can have unpaid leave in increments of full days.  About two years ago, counsel advised not to pay out partial days even though that's to the EE"s benefit.  However you accrue exempt vacation time, his advice was only disburse it in full day increments.  You don't have to pay them for full days of absence in which no work is done if the reason is personal and not due to illness or injury (in which case yoru sick leave policy comes under scrutiny for exempt EEs).

Examples
Jack requests off for 8 days of work.  Jack only has 5 days of vacation accrued and your policy does not permit Jack to have a netgative vacation bank balance.  Jack gets 5 days paid (emptying his vacation bank) and 3 days unpaid (assuming you don't call him, expect him to answer emails, etc.).

Jack requests off for 8 days of work.  Jack only has 5 days of vacation accrued and your policy does permit Jack to have a netgative vacation bank balance.  Jack gets 8 days paid, leaving his vacation bank 3 days in arears (assuming you don't call him, expect him to answer emails, etc.).

Jack requests off for 8 days of work.  Jack only has 5.3214 days of vacation accrued and your policy does not permit Jack to have a netgative vacation bank balance.  Jack gets 5 days paid, leaving his vacation bank with a balance of .3214 days and 3 days of unpaid leave (assuming you don't call him, expect him to answer emails, etc.)

Jack requests off for 8 days of work.  Jack only has 5.3214 days of vacation accrued and your policy does permit Jack to have a netgative vacation bank balance.  Jack gets 8 days paid, leaving his vacation bank 2.6786 days in arears (assuming you don't call him, expect him to answer emails, etc.)