I have a couple of questions, I work at a arts related non-profit organization with a staff of 7 (2 full time and 5 part time) in Iowa.

1. Our board keeps changing the way that our hours are handled. For those of us who are full time and salaried, we get comp hours. They way they're handling that is that we have to work 2080 hours per year (less vacation and holidays) or more. If I work over 40 hours (say 45) one week, I get 5 hours I can take off some other time. But if I work less (38) one week, I lose 2 hours of comp time. Is that ok? Plus, we aren't allowed to be under the total at the end of the year but if we worked over then we don't get anything extra or carry any of it over to the next year because we're "salaried". It doesn't really seem like the way other places work it.

2a. We have one part time person who began working as a full time person and for several reasons now has a new position we created for her that is a 28 hour-per week position. They still pay her on "salary" but probably around the $14 per hour range--not the minimum for salaried people. Is she allowed to be salaried or should they be paying her hourly?

2b. This person also still earns comp hours, and is the only part-time person at our work who is salaried or earns comp time. At only 28 hours per week it is VERY easy for this person to rack up weeks worth of comp time to take off at her will. Her job involves checking on on volunteer activities at our organization and she can spend 3-4 hours in one day just "supervising" the activities and then is gone a LOT during regular work hours to tend to...we don't really know. But she's gone a lot when real work needs to be done.

I'd appreciate any input. I don't know whether I should bring any of this up or not with one of our board members at an upcoming review (where I'm asked about how things are going at work, not a review for myself). Thank you!

For most purposes, non-profit employers have no legal difference in their handling with for-profit employers. Overtime is not one of the areas that are legally different.

You mentioned "salaried". That is just a payment method and does not mean much by itself. Non-Exempt employees are paid overtime and Exempt employees generally are not. The salaried payment method does not change this. So every time you say "salaried", you really need to find out if you are talking about Exempt Salaried employees or Non-Exempt Salaried employees. The Non-Exempt Salaried employees only have a legal right to paid overtime.

You mentioned "part-time" and "full-time". Legally under labor law that is of no importance. All normal labor law rules such as overtime and minimum wage apply equally to both types of employees. "Part-time" might mean something to benefits, but that is a function of how a company chooses to write their benefit plans, and not something externally imposed on the company by labor law.

You mention "comp time". Legally comp time is available to certain governmental employers only, not to non-profits or for-profit employers. Legally these certain governmental employers can use comp time instead of overtime under certain circumstances. Legally this is not possible for non-profit or for-profit employers. Some employers use something they call "comp time" with Exempt Salaried employees only. Since there was never any legal requirement that these classes of employees be paid overtime in the first place, then the employer making up something called "comp time" does not violate any labor law. HOWEVER, any time that paid overtime was required and the employer fails to do so FOR ANY REASON a major labor law has been violated. Calling the non-paymnet "comp time" in no way protects the employer. This would include non-profit employers.

Thank you so much for that information, it was very helpful. I believe that all three of us would be exempt as we all have mangement positions in our organization.

Thank you for explaining the non-importance of part-time vs. full-time. Our only benefit is vacation, but they don't dole that out differently for the two types of workers.

Somehow they don't pay overtime to the hourly employees, who I would assume are non-exempt. We have a secretary, and I have a couple of people that work for me basically like a shop clerk. I think technically they say they're "contract labor" so that they don't have to pay overtime, but they pay them hourly, so I'm not sure if that's ok or not. There are definately times during the year that my 30 hour assistant works 50+ hours a week (a few weeks seasonally).

"Contract labor" is a misleading phrase. The workers are either employees of SOME organization/company or they're independent contractors (just like any other vendor when it comes to wage and hour law); those are the only two options with the type of work you describe and it's almost impossible for them to be ICs.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

For some reason, a number of non-profits seem to be under the impression that, by virtue of their non-profit TAX status, they are not subject to the FLSA. You can be sure that if the organization is getting any federal funding, that alone would make them subject.

Agreed. It is not impossible for a non-profit to be not subject to the FLSA law, but this is very unlikely. It is not impossible for an employee who is paid on a hourly basis to be exempt from overtime, but that is also very unlikely based on what you have said so far. Hourly and salaried are just payment methods and do not mean much by itself. However when people talk about "exempt" they are generally talking about the White Collar exceptions (http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/main.htm) which mostly have a Salaried payment basis requirements.

Any employee is not being paid overtime and feels that they should be paid overtime can file a wage claim with their state DOL. At that point, the non-profit employer can try to make their argument to a skeptical state DOL about why they are not subject to the overtime rules. Also, some states have their own overtime rules, so even if the employer can pull a FLSA-not-applicable rabbit out the hat, they still could be subject to state overtime rules.