My wife works for an advertising agency and is on a salary ($500/week). Can her employer make her work 50 to 80 hours a week without paying any overtime? She was never told she would work this many hours when she was hired. She has to go to events in the evenings and on weekends but is not allowed to shorten her office hours during the week in exchange. She's pretty much on call, and is may be told to work on a weekend on short notice. She is not directly in charge of other employees and cant hire or fire anyone. She does use skills she learned in college but I dont know if that qualifies her for any "exemption" from overtime pay. Since she has travelled to other states for events I guess the company is considered to do interstate commerce.

This might help determining wether she is exempt or non exempt, and if she is entitled to overtime. CBG, Pattymd, and Elliemd, and Robb71, may also know if you can explain in detail what she does with her job duties. I do not know if not being the boss over anyone, is enough to make her entitled to the overtime. I hope you can get the answers you are looking for here.

http://www.ewin.com/articles/exneot.htm

Supervision of 2 or more employees is only required for the executive exemption. OP, if you will explain what her duties are, we can form an educated opinion of whether or not she would be classified under (probably) the administrative exemption, linked to here:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17c_administrative.htm

Thanks to both of you for getting back to me. Reading the links I am now assuming that she is exempt, and they are allowed to work her to death. Thanx again

Thanks to both of you for getting back to me. Reading the links I am now assuming that she is exempt, and they are allowed to work her to death. Thanx again

Can you please answer Patties questions, you might be wrong, and she would have an idea if you are!

That's up to the poster. If they have read the link and are convinced that the position qualifies as exempt, there really is no reason to assume that they are wrong.

Poster, regardless of whether a position is exempt or non-exempt, there are no laws llimiting how many horus they can be required to work. The only difference is that a non-exempt employee would get overtime for over 40 hours in a week. They can still be required to work as many hours as the employer requires.

Your right cbg, I guess I was just wishfull thinking that the poster was wrong, and wanted someone to get paid the extra for the overtime.:)

I am an administrative assistant and was hired on a slary basis but told I would be paid overtime during tax season. ( I work for a CPA firm). When tax season came around last year I was paid for my hours but on my regular pay rate and not the time and a half as required by law. I kept quiet out of fear of being fired. Again the tax season is rolling in and once again will be paid for overtime but on my regular base pay. Can I say something? Is this legal or illegal? Thanks,

I am an administrative assistant and was hired on a slary basis but told I would be paid overtime during tax season. ( I work for a CPA firm). When tax season came around last year I was paid for my hours but on my regular pay rate and not the time and a half as required by law. I kept quiet out of fear of being fired. Again the tax season is rolling in and once again will be paid for overtime but on my regular base pay. Can I say something? Is this legal or illegal? Thanks,

Once again, Pattymd, CBG, Robb71, and Ellemd, are pros at this question, they can figure if you are supposed to be paid anyovertime. May I ask, did you sign any type of contract, that stated that overtime pay during the tax season? If they tell you, you are not entitiled, then the next question would be, is your salary large enough to make it worth the while during tax season. Good luck, I knew alot of tax guys, with my former job, and it is astronomical, what they have to accomplish during the tax season!

To ymet7, whether they are required to pay you overtime is based on whether you are exempt or not-exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/ based on your job duties. You may be exempt under the "administrative" category which means that they are not required to pay you overtime. Thus, paying you for the extra hours that you do work during tax season is at the discretion of the employer and it can set the rate at which you are compensated for those hours.

To ymet7, whether they are required to pay you overtime is based on whether you are exempt or not-exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/ based on your job duties. You may be exempt under the "administrative" category which means that they are not required to pay you overtime. Thus, paying you for the extra hours that you do work during tax season is at the discretion of the employer and it can set the rate at which you are compensated for those hours.


Thanks Marketeer, sorry I forgot to mention your name, with the others!