I am a student in an architecture masters program who is working full-time (M-F 40+ hours/week) in an architecture firm as a draftsman for the summer (10-12 weeks) while school is out. I have been told that any hours over the 40 threshold/week will be paid as straight time because I am a "seasonal employee." Is my employer in the right here?

I get no academic credit for this job, and the firm is in business all-year-round. My position is referred to at time as a "paid internship" but really summer draftsman would be most accurate. I am paid hourly, and get no paid holidays or sick days (again, because I am "seasonal".)

Thanks for any insight you can offer! Just looking for clarification.

That is not a seasonal business. Such would be a ski resort, maybe a golf club (in Maine, where golf season is not very long, unless you use orange balls so you can find them in the snow), etc.

You should be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week.

"Seaonal" has a very specific meaning in law and this is not it. You are due paid overtime.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs18.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs23.pdf


Paid time off (sick, vacation, holiday) is a very different issue. The employer is under no legal obligation to pay these. There are laws in some states that place certain restrictions on PTO, but no state requires that "temporary" employees receive PTO benefits, so the only way this would effect you is if the employer is dumb to create a formal policy requiring PTO be extended to temporary employees, not follow their own policy and have the work done in a state that would actually care about this (some do not). It is extremely unlikely that your employer owes you PTO.

thanks to you both - I was pretty certain that the holiday/sick day policy was legal and I'm fine with that, but my employer's overtime policy seemed pretty strange to me, especially when it was clarified after I'd already worked the overtime hours with no mention of straight pay.

thanks again!