Decency, Trump and Obama.

[Benton]

(03-13-2017, 01:35 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I have never been involved with OT, so my question is, is who said you are being paid for a flat 40?  Is there usually an agreement that says you generally shouldn't have to work more than 40 hours?  don't new lawyers at a law firm work like 70-80 hour weeks?

You're paid at a weekly salary which determines the hourly rate. Say (because the math is easy) $20 an hour is what your base salary (hourly wage times hours worked) is.

So if you work 40 hours, that's $800. Likewise, if you work $80 hours, it's $800. And if you work 20 hours, it's $800. When you do payroll you're paying someone for that 40 hour FTE.

As far as working more, that depends on the business. Used to some businesses offered comp time to salary workers. You work 60 hours one week, you only work 20 the next. But I think that's pretty well been abandoned as more businesses have fewer employees to take up that slack. 

In the above, if you're regularly working 80 hours, you're really just making $10 an hour. Less considering overtime laws.