Here is my 2 cents about this. I am going to assume all employees are hourly and not salaried.
1) In this scenario, where it is not the employees choice on staying home (State of Emergency), then they should be paid. If the state is the one saying say off the roads, or if the practice as a whole (or you as the owner) decide that it is unsafe for you or your patients to come in, then they get paid and no time deducted.
2) I would not do this scenario. It would promote them trying to make it into work in legitimate unsafe conditions. If the majority of the staff can make it in safely, and one person doesn't feel safe, then that would be on them. I would pay them, but then deduct from their acquired time as if they took a personal day/sick day (if they have no time acquired yet, then it would deduct from future time).
3) same as above.. it depends on who makes the call.
4) This is more of a grey area. When I worked an hourly job, if someone said "do you want to go home early" and I said yes, then I would not be paid for the time not worked. It was their choice to leave. I would ask if they wanted to use acquired time to make up for the difference in that scenario.
Last job I had was horrible with snow days. They excepted me to go in, no matter what. It would be a legit blizzard out and a state of emergency called and the district manager would still give me grief about not opening the store (this was a retail job). If I didn't go in, I was not paid. What this did was develop a "culture" of me trying to go in, even when it was not safe. There were several times when I went in when it was dangerous out, just because I knew I would not be paid otherwise. AC and Harris are much better in this regard. Even before the work from home boom, they always said that if I didn't feel safe going in, then to just stay home (now that I work from home, I don't get snow days.. my commute is a LOT shorter though).
The bottom line is make sure your employees are safe. If you take care of them, they will take care of you.
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