SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/753045
www.stma.org December 2016 | SportsTurf 13 also be considered. Employers also need to determine whether the duties the employee conducts fall under the white-collar classification, or whether some other exemption may apply. Also important is an understanding of seasonal employees, or those who work only a portion of the year. In such cases, the weekly paycheck may be less than the $913 minimum but not an accurate reflection of salary. For example, a 9-month employee who earns $45,000 over those 9 months meets the requirement even though the weekly paycheck, because it's spread out over 12 months, falls under. Employers can pay the salary over a longer period of time and still meet the test even though it falls under the weekly requirement. What is very important is that employee cannot perform work outside of that period of time. The most straightforward option would be to raise salaries to the minimum required for exemption, a potentially expensive move, especially when looking beyond the scope of those employees immediately impacted. The new rule does allow some flexibility as applied to salaried positions. The Department of Labor is allowing employers to satisfy up to 10% of an employee's salary with non-discretionary bonuses, incentive pay or commissions, if paid on a quarterly basis at least. The bonuses don't allow an employer to skirt the minimum salary requirements, but it does offer some flexibility on how employees are paid. Just raising all salaries to the minimum required is also a short-term solution. After remaining at $23,660 for 40 years, the new minimum will be adjusted every 3 years. Employers may choose to keep employees' salaries and duties the same but treat them as hourly employees and work to minimize overtime, or adjust employees' hourly pay to account for expected overtime. If someone is making $23,660, there's no way employers are going to be able to double their salary most likely, so it's possible a lot of jobs will be switched to hourly and benefits will drop. Even if benefits don't change, going from salaried to hourly may feel like a demotion to some employees and affect morale.