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Question from frogs780Nov-3

I have 2 questions:

A. I work in a company located in Cincinnati Ohio. In January of this year,  the company mandated that all salary positions work a 10 hour work day rather than the usual 8 hour work day. In August, the company decided to continue the mandatory 10 hour days, but also reduced all pay rates by 15% percent including the hourly workers with no overtime. The hourly employees are now getting overtime after 8 hours. It this legal to make the salary employees work 20% more hours, while getting paid 15% less, than a standard 8 hour shift?

B. I am a salaried employee per the contract I signed, I am expected to work 50+ hours per week. If I miss a day of work, the company will dock me a day of pay even if I have worked over 40 hours. Is this legal with me being a salary employee?

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Fallen Nov-4 81888.2

Regardless of how you are paid -- salary vs. hourly is just a pay/accounting method -- an employer's free to demand you work 24/7 if it likes.

Absent a contract, employer is also free to lower pay as it likes so long as folks are making min. wage.

"It this legal to make the salary employees work 20% more hours, while getting paid 15% less, than a standard 8 hour shift?"

So long as they're making min. wage/salary, yes.

What matters is whether you are exempt or non-exempt, and we cannot know the answer to that from here.  Discuss what you do for a living with the state labor dept. or nearest federal DOL wage-hour division office.  If you're exempt, then the employer has rules to follow before it may dock you for being out an entire day (depends on why you were out, whether you have exhausted paid leave balance, etc.).  If employer doesn't follow rules and you are exempt, it endangers its ability to treat you as exempt and might have to treat you as non-exempt (a/k/a "hourly").

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