Question:
What is the minimum amount of time that an exempt employee must work to be credited for the entire day?
Answer from Kara, JD, SPHR:
If an exempt employee does any work, they must be paid for the full day—there is no minimum. For instance, if the employee came to the office for the first 15 minutes of their usual 8-hour day, then went home sick, they would be entitled to their full pay for that day.
The only exceptions to the Full-Pay-for-Partial-Day rule are during the employee’s first or last week of employment, when the employer is offsetting amounts received for civil services like jury duty or military leave, or when the employee is taking unpaid leave under FMLA.
Employers can, however, use an employee’s paid time off to fill in the gaps. So, if that employee had paid time off available in their PTO bank, the employer could use a partial day of that time to cover their absence. But if the employee was out of paid time off (or was never offered any), the employer would still owe them for the full day.
Kara practiced employment law for five years before joining us, and worked in Human Resources for several years prior to that. As an attorney, she worked on many wage and hour and discrimination claims in both state and federal court. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oregon State University and earned her law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School. 
Kara, JD, SPHR
