Salary feels like a joke. To me, salaried should mean that you’re paid regardless of hours worked, because sometimes the work load will vary. Yeah, that might mean clocking in a ton of overtime and not getting paid extra, but that also means on slow weeks, you get free time.
That’s not how companies see it though!
When we have downtime, my company likes to remind us that we need to keep ourselves busy somehow. Learn a new skill! Finish BS admin work! Volunteer for internal projects!! Otherwise, it might look bad on your performance review
In other words, on “slow” weeks no one actually works that much less, but on “rough” weeks everyone works way more.
It’s actually baked into company policy – we have to submit timesheets for our hours worked, but the system WONT LET US put less than 8 hours a day. Company policy is super duper clear that you must accurately reflect your time, which is a subtle way of saying you should be working a minimum of 40 a week.
if theres a minimum number of hours, seems fair there should be a max before we get overtime, right? LOL. In the US There are NO laws, I repeat ZILCH NONE ZERO state or federal laws which put in place a maximum number of hours worked for salaried employees, beyond ensuring you at least hit minimum wage. nor which protect you from being fired if you refuse more hours.
So, for example, if you get paid 47k in a state with only federal minimum wage, you could be asked to work all your waking hours (16/day) with no overtime pay. If you make 70k, you could be asked to pull all nighters with no overtime or recourse to say no. (except where lack of sleep could be dangerous, like in construction.) On the other hand, if you work LESS than your company’s minimum, they can fire you on the spot.
The power dynamic is so skewed and it’s so fucked.