Would you rather be paid by a salary or hourly if all else was equal?

Question

All my friends that are paid a salary usually are required to work 55-70 hour weeks. They do not get extra pay for long hours. I would think that a salary should only be used when the job is more "task based" where you may get your job done in 30-hours one week and 60-hours the next week and you are just required to get your job done (not tied to working set-hours.)
They all tell me they would be insulted to be paid hourly rather than salary even though they would make more money. I think salaries are just a big joke played on middle-management.
What do you think?

Answer 1

You are absolutely correct.

Salaries are often a "joke" because they limit the amount of money a person can make and can tie a person to working 60, 70 hour weeks. Salaries were big back in the 50's because they showed that the person had a stable job and financial security. Today, salaries are meaningless.

Hourly wages are far more advantageous because they allow overtime and flexibility with hours. People that work 60,70 hours when they receive hourly wages want to, not are forced too.

Finally, the only actual upside to salaries is that salaries usually means benefits. It's possible to get benefits with hourly wages, but it's not as common.

Answer 2

I think that it depends on what your goals and objectives are in your life and career. I have been a salaried professional for the past 15 years. I enjoy it because there are times when I do work 12 hour days, but there are other times when I have a doctor's appointment and can leave early without taking a financial hit.

I would definitely not be insulted to be an hourly worker, since most hourly workers are the ones that really drive a business. They are the people that a company cannot do without. Look at any company, and remove any one level of workers. You could remove upper managers, middle managers, and even front line supervisors and you could get the job done, but your business would fold without the first line hourly people.

Another benefit to being salaried is budgeting. Since your paycheck is the same each pay period, it is easy to budget your money.

I guess it really depends on what your mindset is and what your career goals are, but I don't think that it is a "joke".

What determines your success is not the hours that you put in a day, but the day that you put in your hours.

Answer 3

I think salary based positions suck. My husband's job is like that. His boss can require more hours and set times to leave work, even if the day's load is completed. My mother works by the hour and makes a killing off overtime and weekend pay. I think hourly wages are much more fair to the worker. I can see why companies would prefer a salary, but that doesn't mean I like it. Either way, they'll be people that don't do their jobs and others that carry the weight for those lazy people. At least with hourly, the person is better compensated for extra work hours.

Answer 4

i have a friend who has a job that is hourly and she is in management with a corporation. She has to finish her work in 40hrs because they won't pay over time and expect her work to be done. Also when you are paid hourly if you are late to work it comes out of your pay. We just had a major snow storm and I was an hour late to work as were most people and all the salaried employees still got paid for the hole day. The secratries that are hourly were docked pay, or had to stay late to make it up. So there are benifits to both i guess

Answer 5

I completely dislike salary unless I am not usually required to work more then 40 working hours. If I have to stay past the normal work week, then I consider myself working less per hour. I have an hourly job that pays overtime, which I feel is what every job should do. I want to have a life outside of my job, and if I have to sacrifice my life to be at work an extra 20 hours per week, I want my paycheck to reflect that. I believe you should work hard, but not for free.

Answer 6

You know, getting paid 32K to do a job that requires you to work an extra 10 hours a week can help one mentally recover vs if they were being paid $16 an hour for 37.5 hrs a week (about the same amount) & then expected to give an additional 1.5 to 2 hours for free.

So its your choice how to look at it. Besides salaried positions usually come with paid benefits where as hourly positions do not.

Answer 7

Your friends are all looking at salaries as something that means they are higher up than everyone else. I work for a company where most of the sales employees make more money than the salaried manager does. Salaried people make less money and work more hours comparitively than hourly.

Answer 8

salary sucks, i was a hourly employee who worked atleast 50 hrs every week and that piece of crap i use to work for made me go salary and then required that i work atleast 45 hrs every week that was a joke as i wound up working more like 60 hrs a week, with no overtime pay, now if its a system like im in now with a good company, they pay me salary plus time and a half for everything over 40 its cool

Answer 9

I like being hourly. If I work overtime, it's time and a half.
For my husband, he gets holiday pay (double time and a half) because he's hourly.