:confused: i work for an oil field service company and i am a salaried employee. when i am on call i am expected to be at the shop with in 30 minutes of the call and while i am on call i am expected to not drink ( alcohol ) and i am to be at the shop in thirty minutes. meaning that i can take trips with my family that may require me to be gone for more than 30 minutes. when i am called i have to take my family back home and get to the shop in thirty minutes. when i am on call i do stay home and i do not drink alcohol and i generally do not do much at all because of my on call status. i know that police and other professional fields pay their employees 2 to 3 dollars an hour while they are on the on call status, but what about salaried employees? should i be compensated for this or is there any laws that cover this? i find myself putting in 65 to 70 hours a week do to this and i feel that i should be compensated for this on call status and i am just trying to find out what are the laws in texas about this? thank you for any help that any one may provide me with on this subject. storminnorman814

Salaried is just a payment method - we need to know if you are exempt or non-exempt. If by salaried you mean exempt, you are not required to be paid any add'l. pay over your regular weekly salary.

that is a good question and i really do not know. dont get me wrong. i like my job and i know that people above me recieve bonuses and i have not asked my boss if i will get any bonuses or not for fear of " rocking the boat" although i must say that i have really enjoyed reading some of theses post and reading the replyies. on this subject and aswell many others.

If you are an exempt employee, your salary is compensation for ALL of your time, even if the employer requires you to work 168 hours during the week. Nothing extra for working over 40 or being on call. Nada. End of question.

For non-exempt employees, the question of on-call compensation hinges upon how restrictive the requirements are. As I understand it, not being able to consume alcohol is not considered to be restrictive enough to warrant some sort of compensation.

The thirty minute response time seems to be a bit tight, though, given that the average commute time in my neck of the woods is about that. That would mean you are pretty much restricted to being at home or closer to work.

I was an exempt employee at a hospital in CT and was required to do on-call, rotating with only 2 other people. The on-call included weekends and holidays. As you said, we could not leave the immediate area. Hospitals seem to get around this, and do pay a bit extra for on-call, even though the employee is definitely "exempt". Some pay by the hour, and some pay a flat rate. Believe me, they would get no one to restrict their off-work hours, if they did not pay something.