HI, first time poster,:o

I started a new job on 11-27-06 . I was told the position starting pay was salary at 25k (+ commission) but because of my experience they would come up to 32K (+ commission). The first week I didn’t get a pay check and was told that they hold back one check which is typical. The second week I asked them to kindly look into where my pay was??? The third week the new regional manager came in and was right on the phone tracking it and on the fourth week I got 3 checks.

However…

They told me that the position now “by law” has to be hourly so in stead of a consistent figure of about $615 a week (which is about $15.39 an hour) I’m getting $12 an hour + overtime after 40. We are woefully under staffed so the overtime is not a problem now but I’m told that by the end of January we will be fully staffed and they want everyone getting 2 days off a week. I will need to work 47.5 hours a week to hit my 32K a year. The new regional manager has told me that if hitting those hours do to the company’s scheduling issues ever becomes a problem than he will re-adjust my hourly rate again “to make me whole”.

Can they bounce my pay around like this?

Is it really a law I can’t be salary or are they trying to look better because they are going public next year?

Am I letting my insecurities over hourly employment cloud the fact that my 4th paycheck was almost 50% higher than it would have been if I was salary??

Am I killing any chance of a promotion if I jump on this right away or should I wait until we are fully staffed and see what they do?

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Without knowing precisely what your job duties are, no one can say for certain whether you can legally be considered an exempt employee (salaried is only a pay method). However, there is no question that non-exempt (what most people think of as hourly) is the default and that legally, a non-exempt position can only be paid on a salaried basis in very limited circumstances. It is entirely possible that your position qualifies as non-exempt and if that is the case, your employer is on very much stronger legal ground by paying you on an hourly basis.

The rest of your questions are very subjective and, not being inside your employer's head, we can't really know the answers.