I am a salaried employee and working well over 40 hours per week.?

Question

Based on a 40 hour work week I am making about $13 per hour. But I have already put in over 45 hours this week and they want me to work today too. I am exhausted and feel like I'm being taken advantage of. This company never mentioned to me that I would be working more than 40 hours a week for this cheap salary. Can they do this?

I don't have any benefits with this company for a year! I just started there so it will be 11 months before I have health insurance or any other benefits!

Answer 1

Ah, the wornderful world of exempt employment. As a salaried exempt employee, you are just that "exempt" from any of the overtime pay requirements. You can theoretically work 24/7 and not receive an extra dime.

However, there may be an out. Many companies class employees as exempt who really are not in order to avoid paying OT. There are very specific requirements that must be met in order for a company to class an employee as exempt; if you do not meet those requirements, you should be classed differently and will be owed OT and back pay.

Visit www.dol.gov and review the "salary basis rule" as well as other information on exempt vs. non-exempt employees in their wage and hour guidelines section. This should help you to determine if your job is classified incorrectly.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Probably. I don't know if you have an employment contract, but if it states that your salary, you're pretty much stuck. However, theoretically speaking, if you need to take time off, you shouldn't need to ask for vacation time to do it (nice companies understand that employees who work OT frequently occasionally deserve a little slack).

You didn't mention what you do for a living, but a little story for you: the government started to go after law firms who were working their staff to death (lawyers frequently work 70-80 hours/week), and the firms were claiming that they were within their rights because the staff was salaried. The Labor Department stepped in and said that it was abusive and had the firms start paying overtime. So, some of this kind of depends on where you work, and some of how you handle this will depend how badly you want to keep the job. You may want to speak to your supervisor regarding your hours and find out how long these long weeks will be requested of you.

Answer 3

NO NO NO NO NO!!! A company cannot mandate that an exempt employee work more than 40 hours per week. If it takes you 50 hours per week to do your job, that is one thing, but that is a discretionary measure you as an exempt employee have. If they require extra hours, you MUST be compensated for that overtime. A former employer of mine settled a HUGE class action settlement to avoid having to go to trial over this issue.

Answer 4

Unless you fit some very specific criteria for being exempt from federal wage laws "Fair Labor Standards Act", you have to be paid overtime even if the company designates you as "salaried". Salaried is not the same as exempt - many salaried positions aren't exempt. The employer can designate whether you're salaried or not - federal law says whether you are exempt (from FLSA) or not. The employer doesn't just get to decide.

If you are in a clerical position, then you are not exempt from this law - if you are in management or in a professional job or in specific types of job, then you might be. See http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/overtimepay.htm

Many people think that if you are designated as salaried, that you can be required to work as many hours as the employer asks, without additional compensation. This is NOT correct and in many cases is not legal.

Answer 5

The law says anything over 40 hours a week should be overtime. Your employer should have been clear about the work hours before you were hired. They should at least offer you comp time off to make up for the overtime. However if you wanted to press the issue, you can report him to the state labor board for overtime violation and they might be able to force him to pay you overtime. You better have it well documented and prepare to look for another job.

Answer 6

They can, but it's up to you to ask for a raise or compensation for your time and energy... Maybe, an extra sick day or two... Or more personal time etc.. If you dont' ask, you don't get... Also, ask for more than you like... If you'd be satisfied with an extra week of personal days ask for 10 and so on.... Have you been with the company a long time? If you have then you have a record of all your hours worked and a right to a raise, if not keep track and then ask in about 6 mnths.. The worst that can happen is your superior can say "no"...

Answer 7

From my understanding, yes they can ask you to work more than 40 hours per week as long as the salary you are getting paid and the hours you work comes out to minimum wage. There is not much you can do since there aren't many laws that protect worker's rights.

Answer 8

as long as you are salaried, they can work you as many hours as they want to. Their justification is that salaried employees have more benefits than hourly employees have. Your only recourse is to quit and get another job. Next time, speak to people who are already employed there and ask them what the working environment is really like.

Answer 9

You have been classified by your company as "exempt," which means they don't have to pay you overtime, but some companies are mis-classifying their employees for just this reason.

Please read the link below to see whether your job should be classified as exempt or nonexempt. If you should really be classified as nonexempt, then you should talk to someone in your HR department. If they don't want to listen, then you can either quit or consult a lawyer.

Answer 10

In other words, you are not getting paid overtime? If thats the case, I would say no. Those five hours of overtime you should get paid $19.50 /hr