We have an employee who has state benefits that require her to stay below a certain income. She was hired to work a certain amount of hours and now cannot do that without going over. She stated that once she reaches the dollar amount she is allowed to earn, she would like to continue to work without compensation. She stated that since we are a church she would “volunteer”.(Her mother is a CPA and advised her that this is okay) Her position is a job sharing one and has always been compensated. Are we allowed to do this?

Allowing her to become a volunteer is not a good idea. If her job-share partner is paid and her position has always been paid, then allowing her to “volunteer” would be the same as requiring an employee to work without pay. Even though she is requesting this arrangement, the employer could still be prosecuted for wage theft and other charges of fraud. We may not be talking about a lot of money, but that doesn’t change the fact that DOL and IRS consider this illegal.

Here is a DOL link you can review:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs14a.pdf (read the last sentence under Volunteers)

Here is another good test:
https://www.nonprofitrisk.org/resources/articles/employee-or-volunteer-whats-the-difference/

Hope this helps!

April 2018