For properly-classified “exempt” workers, California employers are not required to comply with certain labor laws, including overtime pay, timekeeping, and provision of meal and rest breaks.

To maintain exempt status, a business must pay the employee’s full salary for any workweek in which the employee performs any labor.  There are no reductions for:

• Substandard quality or quantity of work;
• Inability to work solely due to the business’s operations (e.g., temporary closure for repairs);
• Disciplinary reasons; or
• Working fewer than scheduled hours.  For example, if an employee works on Monday and serves on a jury for the rest of the week, they must still receive their full weekly salary.

However, an employer may reduce that weekly salary amount under specific circumstances:

• For absences of one or more full days for personal reasons (e.g., vacation) if not covered by accrued vacation/paid time off benefits, provided that the employee performs no work whatsoever on those days, including checking voicemails, texts or emails;
• For absences of one or more full days due to sickness if the employee has exhausted any available paid sick leave benefits (again, assuming the worker does no work on those days); or
• For working less than a full week during the first and/or last week of employment.

Take-Aways:

Consult with legal counsel to clarify any uncertainties regarding salary reductions.

For further information, please contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.

See also:

• California Invests $18 Million to Prosecute Wage Theft (March 8, 2024)
• Overtime Policy – Burning the Midnight Oil (March 9, 2023)
• California’s Exemptions from Overtime Pay (January 2012)
• Administrators and Overtime Pay in California (December 2011)
• The California Executive Exemption (November 2009)
• The California Administrative Exemption (November 2009)

Cindy Bamforth
May 2, 2025