I work for a school district and we follow the school year calendar from July 1st through June 30. I work 52 weeks, 37.5 hours per week, and hourly paid, not salaried. The district is saying there are 27 pay periods, rather than the normal 26 pay periods, this 2011-2012 school year, and therefore, will be "streatching" out our pay accordingly and it will appear you will be paid less each pay (for me it's about $40 less every pay period)but at the end of the year, you will make the same as you would have at 26 pays.

My question is this: Is it legal for the district to pay me less each pay, thereby making me a "salaried" employee when I'm clearly not. I have not signed any contract stating I make x amount of money on an annual basis.
Please advise of any Michigan labor laws that might help in this situation.

Depending on the day of the week your checks are cut, this is not unusual. Some years have 27 week pay periods, some have 26. I worked for the Feds and this happened.

Why are you concerned that the way you are paid will change you from hourly to salaried? That has nothing to do with pay periods.

The only possible consideration could be IRS and what constitutes salaried, what constitutes hourly - but I fail to see how that is applicable here. I was salaried.

I don't quite understand why your weekly pay will be reduced because the checks are cut on another day - if you work 37.5 hours a week and are hourly you should be paid for 37.5 hours times 2 every pay check.

What am I missing?

You are still making the same hourly, correct, but you are being paid on a somewhat different schedule.

If you are paid hourly, they will have to report each pay period the number of hours on each check.

They can reduce your pay if there is no contract, they can change you to salary if there is no contract. ** but there are laws on how much you have to be paid to be salary and not in over time.

You need to go speak to the human resourse manager or department on how your pay is going to be effected.

I was an HR Assistant Superintendent for years and to answer your question, yes its legal. It actually makes your pay more up to date and nothing about it sounds like you are being treated as salaried.