I was hired as salaried, non-exempt. My last paycheck however, was for 74.75 hours and 2 hours of overtime. This resulted in my gross pay being $40 less than my base salary amount!
I thought that as a salaried employee, I would be paid my base salary automatically plus any overtime, otherwise I should be catagorized as hourly. Is this correct?? I'm very confused!!! :confused:

There is no such classification under the FLSA as salaried non-exempt. The DOL will permit a non-exempt employee to be paid on salary as long as they also receive any overtime that is due. But there is no salaried non-exempt classification and therefore no laws dictating how they are handled.

As a non-exempt employee you have to be paid for every hour that you work, plus time and a half for any OT you work. I fully agree that it does not make sense to make a non-exempt employee salaried and then not treat them that way. But if you were paid for all the time you worked plus any overtime that was due (it is not clear from your post if this is the case or not) your employer was legal.

Years ago I received a set Salary on the assumption that I worked a certain number of hours per period. The few times I did not meet the hourly requirement, my hourly wage proved about $1.50 per hour less. There was no recourse for me.

Just wondering, is this your situation?

In my case, I was happy to receive the higher rate of salary rather than the lesser hourly rate, and just took it at that.

Actually, I'm still a little confused...

My offer letter states that I will receive an annualized salary of a specific amount. I was told verbally by the HR director that I was also considered non-exempt.

Doesn't that mean that I should be paid a set amount each week plus any overtime that I work? My paycheck this period, however, even with 2 hours of overtime, was less than my base salary would be if I had worked 80 hours that pay period.

The hours I did get paid for were at the hourly rate that my annual salary would equal if I worked 40 hours each week. So if I had worked 40 hours each week of the pay period, I would have received my regular salary amount plus the 2 hours of overtime.
:confused:

Doesn't that mean that I should be paid a set amount each week plus any overtime that I work?

Generally speaking, no it doesn't. Although that is an ill-advised way to express it, merely stating your equivalent annual salary does not obligate the employer in any way to pay you for time your don't work, seeing that you are exempt.