My Wife works for a large chain of retail departmant stores, and works as a store manager. She is salaried. When hired she was told her work week would be 52 hours on average. Naturally she recieves no compensation for holidays other than Christmas ans Easter Day. Now they are making her work over 80 hours a week (sometimes over 90 hours) with no additional compensation, and no time off. She is told that until her store meets all requirements for the "point system" they use, she will work with no time off, and as many hours as necessary to bring her store up to expectations. She is constantly understaffed, as each employee has to pass the "Stanton Survey", a psychological evaluation test, that has eliminated half the town we live in, including the Mayor's wife. She is told that her work schedule is necessary, and that she just has to "get with it".
Is this a fair labor practice?
Please help.
Sincerely, Terrym49

To be exempt from overtime, an employee must meet certain job requirements and be paid on a "salary basis". Salary basis as defined in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is "the payment on a weekly or less frequent basis of a predetermined amount that constitutes all or part of compensation, without reductions or variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed." Under this definition, exempt employees generally must receive their full salary for any week in which they perform work, without regard to the number or days or hours worked.

It appears that the job conditions have changed since your wife was hired. She was told that the average number of work hours would be 52, and the actual number of hours has turned out to be considerably more due to a number of different circumstances. While probably not fair in your mind, it is not inconsistent with the notion that as a salaried employee, she is being paid for the job she performs, not for the number of hours it takes to perform that job.

Karen

My Wife works for a large chain of retail departmant stores, and works as a store manager. She is salaried. When hired she was told her work week would be 52 hours on average. Naturally she recieves no compensation for holidays other than Christmas ans Easter Day. Now they are making her work over 80 hours a week (sometimes over 90 hours) with no additional compensation, and no time off. She is told that until her store meets all requirements for the "point system" they use, she will work with no time off, and as many hours as necessary to bring her store up to expectations. She is constantly understaffed, as each employee has to pass the "Stanton Survey", a psychological evaluation test, that has eliminated half the town we live in, including the Mayor's wife. She is told that her work schedule is necessary, and that she just has to "get with it".
Is this a fair labor practice?
Please help.
Sincerely, Terrym49

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay employees overtime (11/2 times their regular rate of pay) if they work over 40 hours (29 CFR 541 et seq.).

Exceptions to the law. The FLSA also contains exemptions. Employers may not have to pay overtime to administrative, executive, and professional personnel. To qualify for these exemptions, employees must be paid on a salaried as opposed to an hourly basis and perform certain duties.

New regulations, effective August 23, 2004, permit the pay of exempt employees to be docked for disciplinary work suspensions of a day or more without jeopardizing their exempt status.