Help Wanted: No pay for forced day off?

Nonexempt workers fall outside of the executive, administrative, professional and outside-sales categories. They aren't managers, for example, nor are they generally professionals likes nurses or lawyers.

Whether you fit into either category depends on your duties, not just on being salaried. So unless you're a manager, you are most likely nonexempt and wouldn't have to be paid for those days off.

To be a manager you would have to perform supervisory duties most of the time and manage at least two full-time employees, said Irv Miljoner, who heads the U.S. Department of Labor's Long Island office, in Westbury. Your job description doesn't suggest management, Miljoner said.

"Even though he is salaried, he may or may not be exempt based on his duties," Miljoner said. "It doesn't appear he is exempt, from his simple characterization."

So if you're nonexempt, the company has to pay you only for the hours you work. And for the most part, companies can set employees' hours, regardless of their status.

"The company has the right to determine his days and hours of work, and they have the right not to pay him for time not worked," Miljoner said.

Exempt workers are another matter. The company would have to pay them for the forced days off in order to retain their exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements. In exchange for such exemptions, companies have to pay those workers a guaranteed salary, generally a minimum of at least $455 a week, unless they miss entire days for personal reasons.

"If he is truly exempt, they would have to pay him for that day or they would defeat the exemption and would have to pay him overtime," Miljoner said.

Your son can obtain a claim form at the New York State Department of Labor website. For more on the exempt status, go to http://1.usa.gov/sQRzCo. To obtain a copy of the form for unpaid wages, go to http://bit.ly/uSI2yr