Employers may require salaried exempt employees to use accrued vacation or paid time off (PTO) for partial day absences in any increment, including increments of less than four hours, without violating the salary basis requirements for exempt status under California wage and hour law, the California Court of Appeal ruled in Rhea v. General Atomics. This puts to rest a lengthy dispute on this issue and is welcome news for many employers in California that previously adopted policies requiring employees to use vacation/PTO time for any partial day absences of any length.