The plaintiff in this case was a salaried exempt employee of the Department of Corrections. The Department’s leave policy provided that employees accrued “earned time,” a single category of leave time to cover vacation, personal and sick days. When a salaried employee leaves the office during his regularly scheduled hours, his earned time credit is reduced accordingly.
The plaintiff filed a wage claim with the Department of Labor alleging that because he was a salaried employee, he should have no loss of earned time regardless of the hours he works in any one week. This claim was based on the language of RSA 275:43-b, which states that “a salaried employee shall receive full salary for any pay period in which such employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked.” However, the Court found it instructive that the term “salaried employee” is defined as an “employee who … regularly receives each pay period a predetermined or fixed amount of money….” RSA 275:42, VI. Thus, a salaried employee is entitled to receive a fixed amount of money to be paid at a specific time—a paycheck. It is this fixed amount of money that cannot be reduced (with certain exceptions), but an employer may reduce the employee’s leave time in a manner consistent with the employer’s plan or policy.