Michigan labor laws for salaried employees combine federal overtime rules with state protections on paycheck deductions, sick time, and final pay. Your salary alone does not decide whether you get overtime — that turns on how much you earn and what you actually do all day. Below is what applies to you, what your employer can and cannot do with your paycheck, and how to act if something is wrong.
Are You Owed Overtime?
Being paid a salary does not, by itself, make you exempt from overtime. Michigan’s Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act defers to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for exemption questions, so the FLSA tests control.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.940 – Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act To be exempt, you have to pass both a salary test and a duties test. Fail either one and you are non-exempt, no matter what your title says.
The Salary Test
You must earn a fixed, predetermined salary of at least $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 per year. That threshold comes from the 2019 FLSA rule and remains in effect after a federal court vacated a 2024 update that would have raised it.2U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption Your salary cannot rise and fall based on hours worked or productivity.
The Duties Test
Your actual work has to fit one of these recognized exempt categories:3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the FLSA
- Executive. You primarily manage the business or a recognized department, regularly direct at least two full-time employees, and have meaningful input into hiring and firing.
- Administrative. You perform office or non-manual work directly tied to management or general business operations and regularly exercise independent judgment on significant matters.
- Professional. Your work requires advanced knowledge in a field like law, medicine, engineering, or accounting, typically obtained through prolonged specialized education.
- Computer employee. You work as a systems analyst, programmer, software engineer, or similar role applying specialized computer skills.
- Outside sales. You primarily make sales or obtain orders while working away from your employer’s main place of business.
Titles are irrelevant. An “Assistant Vice President” who spends most of the day processing invoices without exercising independent judgment does not fit the administrative exemption. Misclassification is where most wage disputes start.
The Highly Compensated Shortcut
If you earn at least $107,432 a year, with at least $684 of that paid weekly as salary, a lighter duties test applies. You only need to regularly perform at least one duty that would qualify under the executive, administrative, or professional tests.2U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
How Overtime Is Calculated for a Salaried Worker
If you are salaried but non-exempt, your employer owes one and one-half times your regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.4U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA To find the regular rate, divide your weekly salary by the hours it is meant to cover. A $900 weekly salary for a 40-hour schedule produces a $22.50 regular rate and $33.75 per overtime hour.
Michigan’s minimum wage rises to $13.73 per hour on January 1, 2026.5Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Minimum Wage and Overtime Your effective hourly rate, once you divide your salary by every hour actually worked, cannot fall below that floor.
Properly exempt employees receive their full salary for all hours worked, with no overtime premium regardless of the week’s length. That trade-off is why the classification tests are strict.
What Your Employer Can Deduct from Your Paycheck
Two separate rules govern deductions from a salaried employee’s pay in Michigan, and they operate independently.
Michigan Consent Rule
Under the Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act, deductions required by law — taxes, Social Security, court-ordered garnishments — are automatically allowed. Anything else requires your full, voluntary, written consent, freely given rather than obtained through threats.6Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code Act 390 of 1978 – Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Docking your pay for cash register shortages, damaged equipment, or missing inventory without a signed authorization violates state law.
Federal Salary Basis Rule
For exempt salaried employees, the FLSA adds a tighter layer. Because exempt status depends on being paid a fixed salary, your employer can only reduce your pay in narrow situations:7eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
- Full-day personal absences (but not partial-day).
- Full-day absences for illness, if your employer has a paid sick leave or disability policy, including before you qualify for the plan or after you exhaust it.
- Offsets equal to jury or witness fees, or military pay, received for that week (the salary itself cannot be docked).
- Penalties for major safety-rule violations.
- Proportional pay during your first and last week of employment.
- Unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
What is not on that list matters: partial-day absences, slow business, quality of work, and disciplinary suspensions shorter than a full week. None of those justify reducing an exempt employee’s salary.
The Consequence of Getting It Wrong
An employer that routinely makes improper deductions can lose the overtime exemption entirely — for you and every other employee in the same job classification reporting to the same managers, retroactively for the period the deductions occurred.8eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart G – Salary Requirements Those workers then become entitled to overtime for that stretch. A limited safe harbor exists for isolated, inadvertent deductions when the employer has a clear policy, a complaint mechanism, and promptly reimburses affected workers.
Paid Sick Time
Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act took effect on February 21, 2025, and it applies to salaried exempt employees.9Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Earned Sick Time Act You accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. If you are exempt and not tracking hours, the law assumes a 40-hour week unless your normal schedule is shorter.10Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.963 – Earned Sick Time Act
- Employers with more than 10 employees: up to 72 hours of paid sick time per year.
- Employers with 10 or fewer employees: up to 40 hours per year.
An existing PTO policy that meets or exceeds these hours and can be used for the same purposes counts as compliance. Many salaried employees already have qualifying PTO. Where an employer offers less, the statute fills the gap.
Vacation, by contrast, is still not required by Michigan law. Vacation terms live in your employment contract or the company handbook.
When You Must Be Paid
The Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act sets the outer limits for paycheck timing.6Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code Act 390 of 1978 – Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Wages earned in the first half of a month (days 1–15) must be paid by the first day of the following month; wages earned in the second half (days 16 through month end) must be paid by the 15th of the following month. Many employers pay weekly or biweekly, which is fine — those dates are the ceiling, not the norm.
When employment ends, whether you were fired or quit, the employer must pay all earned wages as soon as the amount can be determined with reasonable diligence. Michigan does not set a specific calendar deadline, but “diligence” means promptly, not at the employer’s convenience.
Meal and Rest Breaks
Michigan does not require meal periods or rest breaks for employees 18 and older.11U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Length of Meal Period Required Under State Law for Adult Employees in Private Sector If your employer chooses to offer them, federal rules apply: short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as paid working time.12eCFR. 29 CFR 785.18 – Rest A meal break of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid only if you are completely relieved of all duties. Eating at your desk while answering emails is work, not a meal break.
Retaliation Is Illegal
Federal law prohibits your employer from firing, demoting, cutting hours, or otherwise punishing you for filing a wage complaint or cooperating with an investigation. The protection applies to written and verbal complaints, internal or external, and extends to former employers.13U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the FLSA Michigan’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act reinforces this for employees reporting suspected legal violations. Remedies for retaliation can include reinstatement, lost wages, and an equal amount as liquidated damages.
Filing a Wage Complaint
If your employer has shorted your pay, refused overtime, or made unauthorized deductions, you can file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, online or on paper.14Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Filing a Complaint for Non-Payment of Wages or Fringe Benefits
Gather your evidence first. Pay stubs, time records, your employment contract, written communications about pay or scheduling, and your own dated notes of hours worked all help. If you suspect misclassification, start a personal log now. Write down when you arrive, when you leave, and what you actually do. That record becomes critical if you need to prove non-exempt work.
Deadlines
The clock is strict. A complaint under Michigan’s Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act must be filed with LEO within 12 months of the violation.15Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Statute of Limitations Federal FLSA claims, including overtime and misclassification, must be brought within two years of the violation, or three years if it was willful, meaning the employer knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct violated the law.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations Each missed paycheck starts its own clock, so violations stretching over years can still be partially recovered within the window.
What You Can Recover
Under state law, LEO can order the employer to pay all wages and fringe benefits owed plus a penalty of 10% per year on the unpaid amount from the date the complaint was filed. For flagrant or repeated violations, exemplary damages up to twice the amount owed may be ordered, and the state can assess a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation.17Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.488 – Violations, Ordering Payments, Civil Penalty
Federal remedies are often larger. The Department of Labor or a private lawsuit can recover all back wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery, and a successful private suit typically requires the employer to pay attorney’s fees and court costs.18U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay Repeat or willful FLSA violations can trigger civil penalties up to $2,515 per violation.19U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
You are not forced to pick one path. Many employees file with LEO while also consulting an employment attorney about a federal claim. Attorneys who handle wage cases often work on contingency, taking a percentage of the recovery rather than charging up front.