OVERTIME LAWS - NH - FEDERAL - THE ADMINISTRATIVE EXEMPTION

Is this extraordinarily insane or just ordinarily so?
What kind of hours are typical requirements for a political campaign job? What kind of hours are actually legal?
ARE CAMPAIGN WORKERS NOT ENTITLED TO OVERTIME PAY?

I'm working 100 hours a week right now on a large political campaign with national implications. My coworkers and I believe fully in the goal we're working towards, but are realizing that the expectation that we'll be able to maintain this current working pace -- 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, -- is insane. We are very worried about burning out as the time demands get more strenuous as we get closer to Election Day. We are told and told and told (and some of us actually believe) that these hours are typical for campaign jobs, that we should suck it up. But we're (long past) starting to feel taken advantage of and actually in some sense abused -- it seems ridiculous to do this to us as dedicated workers when with another staffer or two we could each get a rotating day off and relieve the burden and burnout by large factors. So, my question is, are we being lied to when told that we aren't working any particularly drastic or special hours (given the nature of the work we're doing)? Additionally, is it even legal for them to force us to do this? If we were fired for refusing to work 60 unpaid hours a week, would THAT be legal? I'd especially appreciate feedback from those who've done campaign work, but lawyers and anyone else really are more than welcome to comment too.

The above comment isn't from me but it describes my situation. I was hired as a "political organizer" but I don't do any organizing. Instead I do menial tasks like phone banking (telemarketing), canvassing, data entry, and other clerical tasks. We have no discretion or autonomy, do not supervise any other paid staff, and are micro managed to the point of insanity. We have to literally count EVERY telephone call we make, etc. They don't pay us overtime because, according to our job description, we fall under the "administrative" exemption - but according to what we ACTUALLY DO, I don't feel that we qualify for any overtime exemption (we are salaried at $800 per week, but after working 60-80 hours a week we are earning next to nothing). HELP! My husband left, my multiple sclerosis is acting up, I never get sleep, can't go to the doctor, can't clean my house, have NO TIME at all for myself. AND, to top it off, I don't even work for a political candidate. We're an ISSUE based campaign, pushing for HEALTHCARE and funded by a LABOR UNION!

I know that NH state law doesn't protect us, but doesn't FEDERAL overtime law protect us?

I can give you an opinion on your classification but the simple truth is that no one in state or federal DOL cares even a little bit about the anyone's opinions but their own. It is not likely that you are the first person in the situation to raise this issue and it is very likely that there are opinion letters or some other administrative record used to decide such issues.

You have a possibly valid claim for Exempt misclassification. That is all that anyone on this board can tell you. Keep track of your hours and file a wage claim. Since you are pretty much by definition working a temp job, you could (if you wanted) wait until the job terminates to file. Your wage claim will either succeed or not, but whatever we say will not impact the results.

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Past that, most employers can legally ask most employees to work pretty much any hours they want. There are a few legal exceptions such as airline pilots, long haul truck drivers and minor children employees, but other then that, pretty much anything goes legally. You knowingly took a job in a field of work where massive overtime is pretty much the rule. You have no legal recourse on this particular issue. You can stay or you can leave. Those are your choices.

Moreover, most employment laws exempt staff workers for politicos...

However, there comes a certain point where I would question why you would stay as a political staffer.

If your spouse demanded this sort of time, you would get a divorce because they were stifling you....