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Mandate to work more than 40 hrs per week for a salary postion


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Fair Labor Standards Act covers Hourly workers. Mandatory overtime after 40 hour a week. For salaried employees, I don't think there is any law/rule. That is why you are salaried, doesn't matter how many hours you work. Kind of rough when they mandate 50 hours. I'm in sales and usually work more than 40 especially with travel ( after hours, weekends ), but nothing that makes me work 50+.

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Totally different situation, but in the Army - I've never worked just 50 hours a week. Typical work week when deployed is 16hrs/day, 7days/week.

In Garrison, it varies but typically 12hrs/day, 5days/week at a minimum.

With our current economy, most are just happy to have a job.

Edited by Fullauto_Shooter
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So are your working for Wally World? They are famous(?) for bypassing the labor laws.

The real deal is, if your are salaried you are suppose to be management but if 50% of you duties are non-managerial then you are not management. As a manager, if you show up for one minute of work then take the rest of the day off, you can not be charged leave time. That is why you are in management.

The kicker is many companies realize no one is going to push the issue because eventually they get terminated for some 'just' cause.

A smart lawyer would file another class action lawsuit, which would solve the problem.

There is a potential for conflicting regulations; company, state and federal. I remember some labor law from a long time ago about the expectation of a 50 work week as a being the expectation as being in violation of some regulation if it was for the entire year.

Smart companies rarely put this type of expectation in writing.

I worked for a consulting company (Big One) with the expectation of billing 1500 hours for the year. I billed (actually worked!) 2500 hours for the year, this was with 10 days in Maui and a week skiing. However, my year end bonus was awesome!

The bottom line: If you complain, will you get fired or receive less than actual evaluations?

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I have quite a bit of labor experience, both from union side and management. There are what's called exempt and non-exempt positions. The main difference is overtime protection under flsa. If you are in exempt position you have very little protection on hours worked vs pay. It is very hard to answer yer question without more details. If you want to pm me I may be more help.

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IANAL and am not familiar with AR labor law, but in CA the employer cannot make an employee salaried to avoid paying OT. The employee must be in a supervisory role or management role in order to be salaried. Starbucks got in a ton of trouble over this making certain employees "managers" and "assistant managers "even though they spent less than 50% of their time performing managerial duties just to not pay OT.

I'm on salary and work 84 hrs a week during certain times of the year and right around 50 + the rest of the time. My salary reflects this and if you are working 50 hrs a week in order to get the job done, you should be compensated accordingly.

If they have a written policy stating you only get paid for 40 hrs but are expected to work 50, I think you could have the state dept of labor explain to them how that is not lawful.

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It's not that Im upset with having to work more than 40 hrs per week. Hell I already work more than 50. And I do this because I want to do a good job and I want to excel in the company. But when they come to you and say you must work 50 per week and we aint giving you anything for it! Well it just makes you look at it a little differently.

Don't get me wrong I like having a good job and in this economy it is a good thing to have. But when any company or person can sort of hold you hostage because you have good job in a bad economy everyone gets hurt. What is to say next week it is 60 hrs, then 65. I don't mind giving but in the end whats the point in making good money if you have to work all the time.

I never had any intentions of trying to make a point with them I was just wondering if there were any protections. In my research it all breaks down to weather you are labeled as exempt or non exempt. And I am well as you guessed exempt.

Thanks for all the input.

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Whitedog is right on point. CA in an anomaly regarding the definition of who can be considered a salaried employee. It is also one reason why a fair number of companies who were once in CA have vacated the state.

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Correct never calculate your hourly when working salary. I tried it once and it wasnt good. Looking to leave a salary position as we speak that requires much more hours than they pay for due to no help in the area. Finally realized they could care less about anything other than the bottom line. So I figured its time to leave them out to dry and work a job with a semi normal 45-50 hour week and actually be able to have some time to enjoy myself. A day or 2 off a month if that during the months that were not frigid just wasnt cutting it

Edited by EkuJustice
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As I understand it, there are certain positions that cannot e salaried. And there are some positions that although legal as salaried still require OT. This is one reason that our economy is in the tank. as an employer you are never sure, so you either run at great risk (Treble damages can apply, plus fines) or spend an inordinate amount of money on labor lawyers to get an 'Opinion'. Me I don't get to give an opinion, I have to get it right.

That said, if you are in a salaried position that is essentially a production job, IE carpenter, assembler, mechanic, etc. you are likely entitled to OT. Usually 1-1/2X base over 40 hours. Double time is generally a Union or Governmental thing. Some companies will pay over 8 in a day regardless of hours worked in a week. Some state laws MAY require the same.

Managers with true management responsibilities are likely exempt, "Managers" in quotes that in truth can't change the TP roll in the men's room without permission are not likely covered.

So the point is, if you think your boss is screwing you over, see a real Labor Lawyer, not a Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, LLC. On the other hand, if your salary is shall we say more than sufficient.... Maybe you should smile and take the money. After you sue, you may still be entitled to employment, but it may no longer be a place you want to work.

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There are many ways to be exempt, other than just being management.

http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html

Also, overtime doesn't have to be 1x or 1.5x. Our company pays half time for overtime. They spent a lot of money on labor lawyers, and a lot of time with the state labor board to make sure everything they did was 100% legal.

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