Employer PTO policy, all FTE hourly non-exempt accrue PTO hours @ much faster rate than exempt.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So the search engines aren’t much help on this one, I think we may have the #1 company in the country for non-exempt workers with a PTO (vacation/holiday/sick) policy this amazing. :smack:

24hr hospital with a fairly large employee base, non-exempt hourly (FT/PT) to exempt FT ratio runs around 85%/15%. Variable schedule employees across the board on the non-exempt side, with only about 15% - 20% who work regular 80hr 8 - 5 pay periods. PTO time is accrued for all employees off of four rate tiers determined by years of service.

1 - 5 Years = 15 days yr / 4.62hrs bi-weekly to bank
6 - 11 Years = 20 days yr / 6.15hrs bi-weekly to bank
12 - 20 Years = 23 days yr / 7.08hrs bi-weekly to bank
21+ Years = 25 days yr / 7.70hrs bi-weekly to bank

Current policy is worded and works like this…

No mention of exempt or non-exempt in the PTO policy language, only that 64hrs is hr qualification mark for a FT employee and this also is the exact amount of hours you need to get in a pay period to max your PTO pay out. Employees designated PT get half a full PTO pay out if they work 40hrs over the two weeks.

As a non-exempt employee I am required to maintain 80hrs for the pay period by debiting my PTO bank if I take time off. If I take a day off I have to draw down my bank 8 hrs to get back to the full 80 hrs, while still receiving the exact same amount of PTO payout as a non-exempt FTE who only works the minimum requirement of 64 hours in a pay period.

What makes it even worse from the exempt side is non-exempt employees are allowed to round up their hours with banked PTO time to hit the 64hr min req and receive the max payout. Right now we have many employees on the day, evening and night shifts who will work minimal hours, say 59 hrs in pay period then use exactly 5 PTO hours to round up to the 64hr mark. The pattern is repeated pay period after pay period and it gets them the exact same PTO payout as me and all the other FTE benefits like short term disability pay and medical coverage.

Breaking the bi-weekly PTO amount down to an hourly accrual rate puts the actualized PDO accrual rate for some of the new hire non-exempt FTE on par with what I will see @ 21+ years service.

Pretty certain I’m getting boned on this one w/my gilded exempt status, but at the least it is funny cause I just might work at the only company in US where exempt status directors and administrators benefits get whupped up on by a first year non-exempt FTE working 60hrs a week.

And sure enough, they get OT & shift diff as a cherry. HA!

Anyone heard of or seen anything like this :confused:

2

Getting boned sounds painful.

3

This situation does sound atypical of HR procedures, but then again maybe it is typical of healthcare industry where all kinds of weird schedules are allowed, for example I have a doctor buddy whose schedule is 7 days on, 7 days off. That kind of work interruption would never fly in my sector (aerospace). The rules were probably written to offset the wide actual earnings of exempt (salaried doctors, etc) and nonexempt (hourly nurses, office staff, etc). Additionally the tough night shifts need to be compensated and accommodated for, from a physiological adjustment standpoint. On the other hand it seems pretty clear to me that people doing this immediate drawdown of their vacation hours are incredibly foolish by not taking off on a legit vacation every once in a while. It’s unhealthy for mind and body not to take true vacations, so honestly don’t feel ripped off, as their practice will probably net them a solid heart attack.

4

If I am reading your post right A new employee earns 4.25 hours a pay period. If he does not add vacation to his hours he gets 2.31 hours PTO. If he adds 5 hours to his 59 hours he gets 4.25 hours added to his PTO. so he looses 0.75 PTO hours and gets benefits.
If you after 21 years work 59 hours you have to add 21 hours to get 80 hours. And you get 7.7 hours of PTO.

You both end eating up all your PTO.

This is a strange way to calculate PTO or vacation. My experience with former employers. Part time employees vacation is based on the number of hours worked the year before. Part time employees under 20 hours did not get benefits at all. That is now 30 hours with ACA.