PA forced day off w/o pay

[ceannric]

My employer (a transportation and logistics company) in Pennsylvania had their Harrisburg office closed on Christmas Eve this year (a Monday), but required employees to either use a vacation day (if they had any left) or take the day off without pay. Is this legal?

 

[cbg]

Yes, with the following exception.

Any employee who is exempt and who is out of vacation time, must be paid anyway. An exempt employee cannot be made to take time unpaid for this reason, though it is quite legal to require them to take a vacation or PTO day.

A non-exempt employee can either be made to take the day unpaid or to use a PTO/vacation day.

 

[ceannric]

exempt?

I am not entirely clear on the meaning of an "exempt" employee in this context...

 

[cbg]

An exempt employee is one who, under the FLSA, is exempt from overtime regulations.

If you get overtime, you're not exempt. If you don't, you may or may not be.