At the end of December, I took what I thought would be a great job as Finance Manager for a local YMCA. Although I have my master's degree in accounting and the annual salary was only $36,000 – which comes out to $17.31 per hour – money is less important to me than a flexible schedule and work-life balance. As the payroll admin, I soon found out that all the directors earned the same salary, just enough to meet the FLSA's exempt employee salary threshold of $35,568. Although it is a small Y compared to most, the work quickly added up for two reasons. First, I was responsible for the accounting, HR, payroll, and IT, among other things, and I was the only person in my department. The other directors all have staff who report to them. Second, the current CEO had only been there a few months himself, and numerous things had been neglected for quite some time. After a few months, however, I started to notice how the other directors were uneasy or even unwilling to make a decision without his approval first. That, to me, seemed strange since the whole point of being a director is to have authority over your particular department. Long story short, he eventually became more and more particular about how he wanted me and the others to do things, so – combined with the long work hours and low pay – I made the decision to quit a couple of weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when, in search of a new job through Indeed, I see the same position posted, now part-time but offering $18-22 per hour!
