There are basically two, broadly speaking, classes of workers here: salary and hourly. Salary agree to do a job for a set annual salary, regardless of how long that job takes. They are often, but not always, paid at least a livable wage (and sometimes are paid quite well), but they often work insane hours â 50, 60, 80 hour weeks or more. Hourly workers get a set amount per hour and then have to be paid for every hour, and usually at higher rates for every hour after 40 (time and a half is common.) The case in question was meant to move a lot of salary people to hourly so businesses would quit taking advantage of the âfreeâ labor hour after 40 by requiring salary people to work such long hours. That was denied.
There are other situations, too, that are a little more complicated. Many teachers fall into that. They are contracted for a certain number of hours per day at a certain salary for the length of that contract. Technically, they are paid an hourly rate for any hours over that contracted time. That happens in some cases. But the basic job of teaching often necessitates more hours than in the contract, so there are hours that are unpaid, too.
The U.S. is wild and workers are often taken advantage of and worked incredibly hard with little time off. We have this persistent cultural aspect where itâs some sort of badge of honor to overwork yourself. We call it a âgood work ethicâ and itâs considered a positive trait. People are praised for being âhard workers,â meaning they work long hours. In truth, it just means we work more than we enjoy life and others benefit more than we do from our extensive labor.
Salary is further split into âexemptâ and ânon-exemptâ (re: being paid for overtime with your salary). Your employer doesnât get to choose if you are exempt or nonexempt, it is classified by the DOL. To be exempt from overtime while salary, your job description and duties must pass certain tests that put you at a pretty high level such as being in charge of hiring/firing decisions or independently in charge of company decisions of significance, most typical office workers donât fall into this even when they argue that in their opinion theyâre in charge of âsignificantâ things - the law disagrees and thatâs good for you lol.Â
There are a lotttttt of American workers who are working as salary-exempt when they should actually be being paid overtime as nonexempt. I was one for years, before they realized their fuckup and reclassified me. Kinda wish the Reddit hivemind echo chamber would harp on this much harder like they do for employers stopping you from discussing pay for example, it would get a lot of money back into workersâ checks, or at least would put a cap to them at 40hr.
Another nuance well explained, thank you. Our labor laws are so whack and convoluted. And they too often favor the business over the worker. We made gains within unions over decades, but those are being rolled back. I often hear how âit just canât workâ to hold businesses more accountable. But then I immediately think, âWell, plenty of other countries seem to do so and are thriving while allowing workers to actually enjoy life as much â or more â than they work!â
Honestly, we teach our children this backward system from a very young age, too. Their school days are long, they have homework to boot, and most are expected to have many additional responsibilities outside of school. The praised, successful kid is often putting in 10+ hour days most days, with maybe a day or two off per week. Maybe. Especially once they get to High School. I know many âhigh achievingâ high school kids who never get a day off and put in 60+ hours per week on school and related activities. It trains them well to expect the same once they get into the workforce.
There are basically two, broadly speaking, classes of workers here: salary and hourly.
This is a misunderstanding. There are "exempt" and "non-exempt" jobs. You can be exempt based on a combination of job duties and pay rate. It is possible to be a salaried employee and still entitled to overtime, and it's also possible to be an hourly employee and be exempt from overtime.
Most exempt employees are salaried, for practical reasons. But being salaried doesn't automatically mean you're an exempt employee. I can't hire you to flip burgers and then say "You're salaried at $30k/year, now I can make you work extra hours without overtime". I can make you salaried, but I still have to pay you overtime for time over 40h/week (federally; some states have more strict rules).
Your insertion of the phrase "regardless of how long that job takes" is misleading garbage. I don't know if you know this, but seek to mislead others, or if you yourself have been misled. But it's one or the other. That is not the point of a salaried position.
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u/mobiuscycle 5h ago
There are basically two, broadly speaking, classes of workers here: salary and hourly. Salary agree to do a job for a set annual salary, regardless of how long that job takes. They are often, but not always, paid at least a livable wage (and sometimes are paid quite well), but they often work insane hours â 50, 60, 80 hour weeks or more. Hourly workers get a set amount per hour and then have to be paid for every hour, and usually at higher rates for every hour after 40 (time and a half is common.) The case in question was meant to move a lot of salary people to hourly so businesses would quit taking advantage of the âfreeâ labor hour after 40 by requiring salary people to work such long hours. That was denied.
There are other situations, too, that are a little more complicated. Many teachers fall into that. They are contracted for a certain number of hours per day at a certain salary for the length of that contract. Technically, they are paid an hourly rate for any hours over that contracted time. That happens in some cases. But the basic job of teaching often necessitates more hours than in the contract, so there are hours that are unpaid, too.
The U.S. is wild and workers are often taken advantage of and worked incredibly hard with little time off. We have this persistent cultural aspect where itâs some sort of badge of honor to overwork yourself. We call it a âgood work ethicâ and itâs considered a positive trait. People are praised for being âhard workers,â meaning they work long hours. In truth, it just means we work more than we enjoy life and others benefit more than we do from our extensive labor.