EMPLOYERS....or anyone else who might know the answer...

[disneyfanz04]

I have a question...By law how many years do you have to keep employee hours on file??

Reason being..

My DH has worked with the same company for 13 years, and has been on salary for the past 6 years...according to the law, he is not allowed to be on salary because he was not in a management position, so as long as we can get copies of his previous time sheets(they never clocked in with a time clock, the boss always put their hours down and faxed it over to the main store)I think we are owed about $68,000. Now I spoke with a lawyer today, and he said as long as we can prove that he worked all those overtime hours(about 16 hours OT a week) then we have a case and should be able to get the OT he is owed.

 

[disneyfanz04]

WOW...no wonder I keep getting the server is busy message...I just posted this about 15 minutes ago, and it is already on the second page???

 

[doxdogy]

I would start with the wage and hour division for the state of New Jersey. The link is below. Is the attorney your are using specialize in employment law? If so, he should know how long employers must retain timesheets. For some reason, I want to say seven years.

http://www.nj.gov/labor/index.html

 

[azgal81]

I just checked my hour report sheet and it said federal law requires this sheet to be retained for three years. After that they are shredded. Good luck!

 

[j's m]

DH and I own a business in NJ. We had a Department of Labor unemployment compensation audit last year.

According to the state paperwork "Records must be retained and readily accessible at the New Jersey place of business for the current calendar year and for the four preceding calendar years per N.J.A.C.12:16-2.4a" The records included Payroll records, Individual wage early records and weekly summaries.

So that should give you almost five years.

Good luck.

Here's the state info under What Period will Audit Cover.
www.nj.gov/labor/ea/forms/fs-6p.pdf

 

[summerrluvv]

I have a question...By law how many years do you have to keep employee hours on file??

Reason being..

My DH has worked with the same company for 13 years, and has been on salary for the past 6 years...according to the law, he is not allowed to be on salary because he was not in a management position, so as long as we can get copies of his previous time sheets(they never clocked in with a time clock, the boss always put their hours down and faxed it over to the main store)I think we are owed about $68,000. Now I spoke with a lawyer today, and he said as long as we can prove that he worked all those overtime hours(about 16 hours OT a week) then we have a case and should be able to get the OT he is owed.

Is that the law everywhere? Every full time job I've had was salaried, not hourly and I was NOT management.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I checked with Lauri since she has to retain files for her employees. She said that most paperwork (applications for people not hired, etc) is retained for 3 yrs minimum, but her company retains time/payroll information for minimum 5 yrs, ideally for 6 yrs.

I know in VA the law for salary is that you can be salaried and if you do not supervise people (not necessarily a manager, but oversee at least one other employee) 50% of the time that you are working, you are to be paid for anything overtime. But even if you oversee one person, you are out of luck. So if you are retail and a keyholder that is in charge of closing the store on a particular night and have people working with you that are not keyholders - you are technically in charge and are "supervising" that staff. There is a big technicality out there when you try to prove this. It's hard to do!

 

[figment52]

Actually Federal Wage and Hour exclude others too - commissioned sales people, nurses and other medical personal, IT professionals come to mind.

 

[Poohnatic]

It varies by state. My last employer did all the file retention by the most restrictive state's guidelines, so we kept for seven years.

BTW, I was management there, but was considered non exempt and eligible for overtime. In all my previous management jobs, I was straight salary or got half time for anything over 40.

Good luck getting your records together.

Suzanne

 

[ktpool]

Actually Federal Wage and Hour exclude others too - commissioned sales people, nurses and other medical personal, IT professionals come to mind.

That is what I was thinking! I am in IT...

Actually, an exempt, salaried position is a role that holds a 'unique, skilled' job in the company, meaning that the job duties could not reasonable be expected to be shared or absorbed by other associates. For instance, a counter worker position would have a reasonable chance of being filled by another worker or a new hire. However, a Network Engineer position would not have the same expectations.

Just to mix it up even more, you can have salaried, non-exempt employees, who usually have different benefit levels than regular hourly workers, but not as high as salaried, exempt employees.


Strange, strange laws!

 

[barkley]

when i worked for government we kept all time records for EVER (easier once they went onto a computer system, but even when we had paper those time cards never got tossed).

strange how laws must vary state to state-here in california there is nothing that prohibits any position from being salaried. if an employee accepts a position as salaried they have done so willingly. there are laws that say some salaried positions must receive overtime-while others are exempt (not exclusive to managment-these include i.t. jobs, some hospitality industries, and some sales positions).

i would also check into what the state /federal statute of limitations is-and if the employee may have any employee agreement that they entered into by virtue of accepting the position. the government agency i worked for generaly stuck to the most generous law regarding this-but in any case of a payroll error (be it on the employer or employee's part), they only went back 2 calendar years for either compensation or collection. it also gets realy funky when the employer is (or is owned by) a national or international firm-they can be subject to waivers and provisions that other local employers are not.

i would also make sure that any compensation prior to issuance, was reviewed by a cpa specializing in payroll issues- there could be ramifications regarding social security, taxes and the like that would need to be written into a final settlement to ensure that the employer portion was paid by the employer and not the employee (and tax wise it could be better to have it spread out over time vs. a lump sum which could result in a huge tax liability).

 

[disneyfanz04]

Is that the law everywhere? Every full time job I've had was salaried, not hourly and I was NOT management.

From what I have read so far, you can be salary, but only up to 40 hours a week, anything over that you have to be paid time & a half.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not sure you have a leg to stand on. There are so many loopholes to this law it's going to be next to impossible to win. It's not as cut and dry as saying "if you are not a manager, you can not be a salaried employee". Plus is your husband still employed by this company? Do you really want to jeopardize his relationship with his company like this?

 

[disneyfanz04]

I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not sure you have a leg to stand on. There are so many loopholes to this law it's going to be next to impossible to win. It's not as cut and dry as saying "if you are not a manager, you can not be a salaried employee". Plus is your husband still employed by this company? Do you really want to jeopardize his relationship with his company like this?

No he does not still work for the company...he actually just quit, and his new employer was the one who told us about this. The lawyer that I spoke with today told us to call the hours & wage division of the Department of Labor, and said to let him know what they said. The lawyer said as long as there is proof that he worked 56 hours a week, then there is a case. I know there is more to the "if you are not a manager, you can not be a salaried employee" like they can be salary but only for 40 hours a week, anything after that should be paid time & a half.

 

[Cass]

Legally, don't they have to keep all their records for 7 years? anything older than that I think they can toss.