Severe weather doesn’t shut down HVACR businesses the way it does other industries. Your office might be closed, but you’re still fielding emergency calls. You might postpone routine maintenance, but if someone’s heat goes out, they need help now. Some of your people can’t safely get to work. Others are out handling those emergency calls.
All of which raises the question: who gets paid?
The answer depends on how your employees are classified under federal wage and hour law, and unfortunately, the rules aren’t the same for everyone.
First: Check your state requirements
Before we get into federal law, here’s something you need to know: your state might have stricter rules.
California, for instance, has “reporting time pay” requirements. If an employee shows up for their scheduled shift and you send them home because of the weather, you might owe them a minimum number of hours. Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey have their own variations. When state and federal law conflict, you follow whichever one is better for the employee.
So, before you implement anything based on what you read here, verify what your state requires. Check with your state’s Department of Labor or talk to an employment attorney who knows your jurisdiction.
Employee classifications: What actually matters
Federal law divides employees into two categories, non-exempt and exempt, and the weather pay rules are completely different for each.
- Non-exempt employees get overtime pay for hours over 40 in a week. Most are paid hourly. Your field technicians, installers, and apprentices almost certainly fall into this category. But here’s what surprises people: many office positions are non-exempt too. Dispatchers, receptionists, and bookkeepers, even if you pay them a salary, may still be non-exempt depending on their job duties.
- Exempt employees don’t get overtime. To qualify as exempt, they must be paid on a salary basis, meet minimum salary thresholds, and perform specific types of work. Think office managers, service managers, and some supervisory roles.
The key point here: classification isn’t about where someone works. It’s about how they’re paid and what they do. Office workers aren’t automatically exempt, and field workers aren’t automatically non-exempt. The distinction matters when dangerous weather shuts things down.
Non-exempt employees: Straightforward rules
For non-exempt employees, federal law is pretty clear: they get paid for hours actually worked. No work, no pay.
If you cancel scheduled work due to weather, they don’t get paid. It doesn’t matter if it’s a field tech whose service calls got postponed or an office worker you told to stay home. No hours worked means no pay required under federal law.
Work is available, but they can’t get there? Same answer. If a tech can’t reach their job sites because roads are impassable, or if your dispatcher can’t make it to the office, you’re not required to pay for those hours.
If some employees work while others don’t, you pay the ones who work. During a snowstorm, you might have two techs out on emergency no-heat calls while everyone else stays home. Those two techs get paid for their hours. The rest don’t.
Now, you can let non-exempt employees use PTO or vacation time to cover weather absences. Some employers do this, especially for company-initiated closures, to maintain goodwill. But it’s not required under federal law.
Exempt employees: More complicated
Exempt employees are governed by something called the “salary basis rule.” The basic idea is that they must receive their full predetermined salary for any week in which they perform any work. There are only a handful of exceptions, and weather situations can fall into those exceptions, but the details matter a lot.
If you get this wrong, you risk losing their exempt status entirely, which could mean back overtime pay and penalties. So, let’s walk through the different scenarios.
You shut down, and there’s no work available
If you close your office and exempt employees can’t work, not even remotely, you have to pay their full salary. The closure was your decision. They were ready and willing to work, but you prevented them from doing so. You can’t deduct their pay.
HVACR businesses rarely close completely. You might still be taking emergency calls. But if your office manager has no work available because the office is closed and remote work isn’t an option, you still pay them.
Office closes, but remote work is an option
If you close the physical office but exempt employees can work remotely, for example, answering phones or processing paperwork, and they choose not to, you may be able to deduct from their salary. Work was available. They didn’t do it.
But, and this is important, it has to be a full-day deduction. You can’t dock someone for half a day or a few hours. It’s all or nothing, which is why most employers just require PTO instead. It’s cleaner, safer, and less risky.
You stay open, but they don’t come in
This is the tricky one. Your office is open. Roads are bad, but not impossible. Your exempt office manager decides it’s not safe and stays home.
Can you deduct from their salary? Probably not, especially if they worked any other day that week. The salary basis rule generally protects them. There’s a limited exception for full-day absences due to personal choice, but when the absence is related to safety concerns about dangerous weather, that exception gets murky fast.
The safer move? Require them to use PTO rather than messing with salary deductions. The risk of violating the salary basis rule isn’t worth it.
Why this matters so much
If you make improper deductions from an exempt employee’s salary, you don’t just owe them the money back. You risk losing their exempt status, which means you could owe back overtime for all the weeks you treated them as exempt. Plus penalties. Plus legal fees if they sue.
When you’re not sure whether a deduction is okay, don’t guess. Talk to an employment attorney or reach out to your HR service provider.
Simple recommendations you can put into practice
- Put your policy in writing. Your employee handbook should spell out what happens during severe weather. How will you communicate decisions? What should employees do if they can’t travel safely? How does pay work? Clear policy prevents confusion and arguments after the fact.
- Communicate clearly when bad weather hits. Don’t be vague. Are you closing the office? Canceling non-emergency work? Still taking emergency calls, but only if techs can safely get there? Say so explicitly. “Use your judgment” sounds reasonable, but can create confusion.
- Think about safety, not just pay obligations. You might legally be able to require people to report during dangerous weather. That doesn’t mean you should. Accidents create liability far beyond wage and hour issues. For emergency calls during severe conditions, make sure compensation reflects the risk and that you’re providing proper equipment.
- When exempt employees don’t work but could have, they can use PTO. If an exempt employee chooses not to work when work was available, whether that’s because you stayed open and they didn’t come in, or because remote work was available and they didn’t do it, require them to use accrued PTO rather than trying to figure out whether a salary deduction is legally defensible. It maintains the salary basis, addresses the business impact, and keeps you compliant without the risk.
- Know who’s exempt and who isn’t. Employee misclassification is common and expensive. If you think someone is exempt when they’re not, you could owe years of back overtime. Make sure you’ve classified people correctly based on their actual duties and pay structure, not just job titles or where they work.
If you haven’t looked at your inclement weather policy recently, now’s a good time. Make sure it reflects current law, addresses both employee classifications, and matches your actual business practices.
Need help?
Have an HR question or issue you’d like us to write about? Submit your request to ACCA’s HR and People Operations team at hr@acca.org.
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