If I'm a salaried employee, and work 2 hours in the office one day, then go home sick, does my employer have to pay me for 8 hours?

Saying you're "salaried" doesn't give enough information to enable an answer to the question. Are you salaried exempt or salaried non-exempt?

If you're salaried exempt, then your employer is not obligated to pay you overtime. In that case, your employer is obligated to pay you for your full pay period - even if you're out 3/4 of the time in that period for six days.

If you're salaried non-exempt, then you're hourly... but by another name. In this case, your company is only going to pay you for the hours you work (in most cases) or the hours for which you have actual sick time allocation remaining.

How do you know the difference?

Do you receive overtime pay when you exceed 40 hours in a week? If so, you're likely salaried non-exempt... and you're going to either be using up sick time or getting a smaller check.

Cal DiMangino earns $2,875 each month and works 40 hours each week compute hourly rate computer the hourly rate and the overtime rate

Cal DiMangino earns $2,875 each month and works 40 hours each week compute hourly rate and overtime rate

In most workplaces you will not get paid for 8 hours. You may have to use 4 hours of sick time, or 8 hours of sick time, if you have any.

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If terms of pay and employment are not clearly defined from the start, employers will pretty much do whatever they can get away with, especially in this job market. This includes 60+ hour weeks with no overtime or other compensation. If you leave early one day, but your weekly hours still exceeds 40, the employer can still dock you or make you use vacation time to cover the less-than-eight hour day.

If you complain about it, they will say be glad you have a job.