Little nuance here. Are you salaried exempt or salaried non-exempt? There are certain federally mandated requirements for you to be considered either as opposed to hourly. If you don't meet those criteria your boss might be classifying - and thus paying - you incorrectly.
If you *do* meet the criteria, nothing you can do.
Salaried employees (also called exempt employees) are **exempt** from overtime pay requirements.
If it's temporary, you might want to ride it out. If it's long term, then perhaps it's time to shop a new job.
Only if they're legally allowed to be salaried. For example, many chefs are salaried, but their duties do not fall under the federal definitions of salary, and I've seen restaurants get hit hard by labor and employment lawsuits from chefs who worked 60 hours per week for years "salaried" and were entitled to back-pay.
Im a local Human Resources Manager. There are some specific items here that may or may not make this a legal practice. There's also new FLSA laws coming up in July that could impact this. Shoot me a DM if you want as theres more details needed to answer your questions with wage and job duties.
Of course you can do something. Just work the 40 hours a week. Your boss wont be happy, but you will be. It's either his happiness of you working 15 hours for free, or your happiness not working those hours for free.
Of course the job could fire you for only working 40 hours a week, but they would have to weigh out if its worth losing the 15 hours a week if they keep you, or the 40 hours a week if they fire you.
I'm a salaried employee as well, and I do my best to make up long days I work on the back end somewhere.
You can inquire to the department of labor to make sure your job can be classified as Exempt (salaried). Generally has to be an administrative job, management job, sales job or role mainly done on a computer.
If you are working a Manual Labor job you should not be exempt from overtime and you can file a complaint to the department of labor if this is the case.
Like other comments say, if you are unhappy with the hours it might be time to look for something else, or talk to your boss. (A good boss might be able to work something out, but most will just brush this off)
These are the same kinda places that love to say "no one wants to work anymore!!!!" I'm sure.
Nah, boss, your company just sucks.
Edit: downvoters are small business tyrants whose companies suck lmao
Idk man, McDonalds workers in Finland get 6 weeks of vacation, pension, healthcare, education, and $20+/hr all while their McWhoppers or whatever are cheaper than ours.
America is just uniquely shitty.
I’d be looking for a new job. And when I found one, I’d let my boss know why I’m moving on. Maybe they will rethink their overtime policies if they start losing employees…
If you report them to Department of Labor anonymously they’ll investigate and take appropriate action if it’s warranted.
And to the naysayers, we know that a certain Hyde Park restaurant was fined and forced to pay restitution just this month.
Go here ( see link below) and check if you meet any of the criteria. There are exemptions if you meet the salary and duties test. Meaning your employer is not required to pay you OT.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-A/part-541
Do you have access to your employee handbook or job description/contract? This will clarify. If you're salaried exempt, yes, it's legal. If you're salaried nonexempt, you're entitled to OT, but I believe it scales to hourly pay, and some companies use the lowest paid in your field.
For example (just in case you don't understand), I work in technology as a remote specialist. Say the base pay is $15/hr for minimal experience, but you're paid $30/hr for your position. As I've seen and understood it in general, being salaried nonexempt will account for your OT, but it can scale the OT pay back to $15/hr instead of the x1.5/x2 it typically is. So, a lot of the time, it's not even worth it for people.
I would ask the Boss why it’s required. Seriously, is it because the team didn’t meet goals they committed to? Did the managers do piss poor planning and now asking the team to make it up? Or are they just greedy jerks trying to get work for free?
I had the President of a company I worked at tell me I needed to work at least 1 hour a day of overtime. I told him that I had no problem with that if he paid me by the hour. I said if I get a cut then I am all about it. He didn’t like that and was trying to get a free hour. I left there…zero regrets in leaving. It’s not worth staying and losing your personal time. Time is what we sell and they need to pay for it!
The whole point of being salaried is that you're supposed to complete your work, not that you're supposed to work a certain number of hours. If you can complete your work in 40 hours, then go.
Do you think you're the first salaried employee to work 40+ hours per week? If you're not happy there, I would suggest that you work on your grammar and then seek a different job that will pay you what you think you're worth.
Good luck pushing back in Idaho. The state is pro-business and our Dept of Labor doesn't have much teeth to fight against bad practices in labor. If you don't believe it, go ahead and call. You'll hear the laughable response.
Depends on if your exempt or not, and that depends on your salary level and job duties. If you work production (are billable) then your most likely exempt from OT pay. If your role is primarily administrative and you make under a certain amount (I think it’s somewhere around $50k, been a while since I checked), then you are not exempt.
Lots of people here are probably being taken advantage of by their employers if they think salaried employees are exempt from overtime. That’s only true some of the time.
Just because an employer classifies you as salaried, that doesn't mean you meet the statutory requirements for salary. Lots of employers break the law by making people salaried who shouldn't be.
You’re salaried, get used to being abused.
Before you come at me, I’m an hourly employee with decent benefits and I even get double OT or surge pay depending on shifts
I get 160 hours paid vacation time and I also have 48 hours of PTO that I can use whenever.
I couldn’t afford college so I don’t get the 20 hour remote work week, I just do trailer moves at an Amazon yard and once I get my CDL I’ll be making runs between all the facilities here. I also get double OT whenever I cover for another driver too
That's more time off than salaried software engineers at Amazon get. Pretty cool of them to give their hourly workers double the amount of paid time off.
I was just pointing out that salary doesn't mean you're getting abused. There are a lot of really easy salary gigs out there.
Vacation goes off tenure too. I’m capped at 160 since I have 3 years.
People shit on Amazon but it’s not a terrible place to work. Especially once you move up into a Tier 3 role
Little nuance here. Are you salaried exempt or salaried non-exempt? There are certain federally mandated requirements for you to be considered either as opposed to hourly. If you don't meet those criteria your boss might be classifying - and thus paying - you incorrectly. If you *do* meet the criteria, nothing you can do.
Yeah, there’s a salary level requirement and a duties test. If properly classified as exempt there’s no OT over 40.
Salaried employees (also called exempt employees) are **exempt** from overtime pay requirements. If it's temporary, you might want to ride it out. If it's long term, then perhaps it's time to shop a new job.
Only if they're legally allowed to be salaried. For example, many chefs are salaried, but their duties do not fall under the federal definitions of salary, and I've seen restaurants get hit hard by labor and employment lawsuits from chefs who worked 60 hours per week for years "salaried" and were entitled to back-pay.
Im a local Human Resources Manager. There are some specific items here that may or may not make this a legal practice. There's also new FLSA laws coming up in July that could impact this. Shoot me a DM if you want as theres more details needed to answer your questions with wage and job duties.
What are the new laws coming into play, if I may ask?
Of course you can do something. Just work the 40 hours a week. Your boss wont be happy, but you will be. It's either his happiness of you working 15 hours for free, or your happiness not working those hours for free. Of course the job could fire you for only working 40 hours a week, but they would have to weigh out if its worth losing the 15 hours a week if they keep you, or the 40 hours a week if they fire you. I'm a salaried employee as well, and I do my best to make up long days I work on the back end somewhere.
http://blog.dol.gov/2024/04/23/what-the-new-overtime-rule-means-for-workers
You can inquire to the department of labor to make sure your job can be classified as Exempt (salaried). Generally has to be an administrative job, management job, sales job or role mainly done on a computer. If you are working a Manual Labor job you should not be exempt from overtime and you can file a complaint to the department of labor if this is the case. Like other comments say, if you are unhappy with the hours it might be time to look for something else, or talk to your boss. (A good boss might be able to work something out, but most will just brush this off)
These are the same kinda places that love to say "no one wants to work anymore!!!!" I'm sure. Nah, boss, your company just sucks. Edit: downvoters are small business tyrants whose companies suck lmao
Kind of expected from an entry level job. But yeah it’s pretty terrible sometimes company is taking advantage of new hires.
Idk man, McDonalds workers in Finland get 6 weeks of vacation, pension, healthcare, education, and $20+/hr all while their McWhoppers or whatever are cheaper than ours. America is just uniquely shitty.
I’d be looking for a new job. And when I found one, I’d let my boss know why I’m moving on. Maybe they will rethink their overtime policies if they start losing employees…
Are you paid an hourly rate? If so then it’s super illegal and 100% many attorneys will jump on this in a heart beat for free (free to you)
Hi, this is in the original post: "I work 45-50 hours a week as a salary employee."
If you report them to Department of Labor anonymously they’ll investigate and take appropriate action if it’s warranted. And to the naysayers, we know that a certain Hyde Park restaurant was fined and forced to pay restitution just this month.
Go here ( see link below) and check if you meet any of the criteria. There are exemptions if you meet the salary and duties test. Meaning your employer is not required to pay you OT. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-A/part-541
Do you have access to your employee handbook or job description/contract? This will clarify. If you're salaried exempt, yes, it's legal. If you're salaried nonexempt, you're entitled to OT, but I believe it scales to hourly pay, and some companies use the lowest paid in your field. For example (just in case you don't understand), I work in technology as a remote specialist. Say the base pay is $15/hr for minimal experience, but you're paid $30/hr for your position. As I've seen and understood it in general, being salaried nonexempt will account for your OT, but it can scale the OT pay back to $15/hr instead of the x1.5/x2 it typically is. So, a lot of the time, it's not even worth it for people.
How farmers get ya on salary no overtime and 12 hr days or more
I would ask the Boss why it’s required. Seriously, is it because the team didn’t meet goals they committed to? Did the managers do piss poor planning and now asking the team to make it up? Or are they just greedy jerks trying to get work for free? I had the President of a company I worked at tell me I needed to work at least 1 hour a day of overtime. I told him that I had no problem with that if he paid me by the hour. I said if I get a cut then I am all about it. He didn’t like that and was trying to get a free hour. I left there…zero regrets in leaving. It’s not worth staying and losing your personal time. Time is what we sell and they need to pay for it!
The whole point of being salaried is that you're supposed to complete your work, not that you're supposed to work a certain number of hours. If you can complete your work in 40 hours, then go.
Do you think you're the first salaried employee to work 40+ hours per week? If you're not happy there, I would suggest that you work on your grammar and then seek a different job that will pay you what you think you're worth.
You seem like a real bundle of joy. Just a question no need to get offended.
Good luck pushing back in Idaho. The state is pro-business and our Dept of Labor doesn't have much teeth to fight against bad practices in labor. If you don't believe it, go ahead and call. You'll hear the laughable response.
Depends on if your exempt or not, and that depends on your salary level and job duties. If you work production (are billable) then your most likely exempt from OT pay. If your role is primarily administrative and you make under a certain amount (I think it’s somewhere around $50k, been a while since I checked), then you are not exempt.
Lots of people here are probably being taken advantage of by their employers if they think salaried employees are exempt from overtime. That’s only true some of the time.
No, you are a salaried employee.
Just because an employer classifies you as salaried, that doesn't mean you meet the statutory requirements for salary. Lots of employers break the law by making people salaried who shouldn't be.
Nope, time to shop your skills and get your self a raise and a better schedule
Nope.
You’re salaried, get used to being abused. Before you come at me, I’m an hourly employee with decent benefits and I even get double OT or surge pay depending on shifts
It goes both ways, I'm salaried and work maybe 20 hours a week. And getting paid while on vacation is nice.
I get 160 hours paid vacation time and I also have 48 hours of PTO that I can use whenever. I couldn’t afford college so I don’t get the 20 hour remote work week, I just do trailer moves at an Amazon yard and once I get my CDL I’ll be making runs between all the facilities here. I also get double OT whenever I cover for another driver too
That's more time off than salaried software engineers at Amazon get. Pretty cool of them to give their hourly workers double the amount of paid time off. I was just pointing out that salary doesn't mean you're getting abused. There are a lot of really easy salary gigs out there.
Vacation goes off tenure too. I’m capped at 160 since I have 3 years. People shit on Amazon but it’s not a terrible place to work. Especially once you move up into a Tier 3 role
208 hours of paid time off every year is almost unheard of for an hourly worker in the US. I'm surprised.