I was under the impression that American law put restrictions on working hours for all employees, but since my boyfriend recently got his dream job as a developer I've learned that salaried workers are a lot different than hourly workers in that regard. His coworkers have pressured him into staying 1-3 hours late everyday even though he has no specific responsibilities to complete: everyone in the department fixes bugs all day and there's no quota to complete. I looked up what the maximum amount of hours they could make him stay are, but everything online says there is no maximum for salaried workers. Does that mean that a company could feasibly make their employees work all day everyday and not break the law? How is this legal? What stops companies from telling their workers to put in 12+ hour days for the same amount of pay?
My boyfriend's father works in IT and he said that life is unfair and you sometimes have to give all your time to your company to finish projects, and I think that mentality is bullshit. There are some meaningful jobs that I could see require more hours, like healthcare workers or electricians fixing power outages, or firefighters preventing cities from burning, because all of those jobs literally save people from death and injury, and I hope they get compensated for all their hours. But the world doesn't suffer because a developer didn't stay late to fix one bug.
Are there any groups fighting for protection for salaried workers? I'm terrified that he'll be told to stay longer and longer and completely wreck his mental and physical health just because his coworkers are used to that. No one that I have spoken to is as worried as I am about this and I hoped you guys might be able to give me some insight.