Did you get a promotion recently? To assistant manager, or even manager, perhaps? Or Supervisor, or Chief or Superintendent or Administrator?
At the same time, was your pay changed from hourly to salary? So now, instead of making, for example, let’s say $20/hour (maybe more, maybe less, for you, of course), you’re making $40,000 a year. In fact, if you worked 50 weeks in a year (let’s say you got two weeks off for vacation), working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, that would be 40 hours a week, times 50 weeks would be 2,000 hours. And 2,000 hours’ work at $20 per hour would be $40,000. So it would seem to be the same, right?
But what about overtime? Oftentimes, most of the time, people who are paid a salary aren’t paid any overtime. So if you get to work at 7:00 a.m., get a coffee, and then start working, even though you’re not set to begin until 8:00 a.m. – because there’s so much work to do, and your boss just keeps piling it on, if you’re salaried, you most likely won’t get paid for that.
Of course the same is true if you’re salaried and you have to work through lunch, after work, or at home, that is, you’ll probably still only get paid that salary. Do you get calls or texts on days off? Emails? Or on vacation? Do you get paid for that? If you’re on a salary, I’m betting you aren’t.
Maybe being paid a salary is the legally correct way for an employer to pay you. Most employers try to do the right thing and obey all laws regarding their employees, I’d like to think. But a lot of them, either negligently or intentionally, don’t pay their employees all the money they rightfully earn.
In California, if someone is called a boss or administrator and not paid overtime – when in fact, because of the work they do, they should get overtime, maybe even doubletime – that’s illegal.
Are you an Administrator? Manager? Chief? Supervisor? Some other title like that? Track your hours worked each day. Keep that record of all the hours you work – at home, not at work – week in, week out, month in, month out, you get the picture. Similarly, keep a record of all the expenses you incur. You never know when you might want to consider whether you’ve been treated fairly in your paycheck each week or in regard to expenses like phone bills or gas or uniforms.
Contact my office if you’re wondering about your own situation. I’d be glad to hear from you. You can call 626-795-0205, 818-547-5200 or email me at Tom@falveylaw.com. If you haven’t taken a look at it already, you might also want to see cases we’ve already filed, to see if anything there might apply to you, on another website, www.Falveylaw.com.
Thanks for reading. Keep on managing well! Do a good job! Be a great boss!
Tom the Lawyer 