Neither fish nor fowl
Salaried with overtime
Brings pain and regret
We don’t see a lot of wage and hour poetry these days, but if we did, it would probably look a bit like the foregoing example from an anonymous former U.S. Department of Labor official. When it comes to paying office workers who do not qualify for an overtime exemption, businesses often look for ways to treat those workers as much like exempt personnel as possible, including by paying wages in the form of a salary rather than hourly pay. Salaried nonexempt status ordinarily starts with good motives, but it frequently ends with claims for unpaid overtime. In this month’s Time Is Money segment, we explain that although paying overtime-eligible employees on a salary basis is a lawful, available option, it comes with significant risks that an employer must understand and navigate in order to pay these workers correctly.
Workers, broadly speaking, value the security that comes with receiving a guaranteed amount of pay each week that is not subject to significant peaks and troughs based on short-term shifts in the workload. Receiving a salary is also a badge of status and success insofar as it aligns with how typical “white collar” employees receive their pay, as compared to the hourly pay that “blue collar” workers ordinarily earn.
Employers, in turn, tend to prefer the relative predictability of labor expense associated with salaried employees. Businesses want their office staff to feel and behave in a manner...
A California lawmaker is suing Sacramento police for falsely accusing her of driving under the influence, saying the case may have been motivated by her tough-on-cops legislation or possibly becaus...