I would lke to understand and locate information and an answer to the following including any laws supporting or negating. I am employed and work in California (exempt status), but my manager and coworkers are located and work in the East coast. My manager and coworkers are allowed to work "summer hours" meaning that they work over 8 hours/day during the week allowing them to leave early on Friday. I have been told that this is illegal in the State of California and as such, I cannot participate in this program. Is that true? Does my exempt status have any impact on this? Further, I asked my manager about the comp time policy. Specifically, I travel to other locations nationally and often must fly on a Saturday or Sunday. Recently, I have been traveling a lot and my employer has hesitated to allow me comp time. This has resulted in my working 3 weeks straight without a break. Again, what does the law state for exempt employees? I am wondering if exempt status, under California law, means that this situation is legally sanctioned. I hope not - I am exhausted! Thank you, in advance, for any insight you may be able to offer.

If you are exempt, then the vast majority of the wage and hour laws do not apply to you. "Exempt" means "Exempt from the law." Thus, if you truely are exempt, they can require you to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can allow you to work longer some days and go home early on others. There is no law at all for an exmempt employee that controls how many or fews hours you can work, provided they pay you your salary to maintain your exempt status.

Now, if you are non-exempt, then you can't work longer on some days and go home early on Fridays without getting paid extra for the overtime worked on the longer days.

Thus, the real question is whether you are really exempt or not.

Finally, it terms of finding laws supporting or denying the above, these laws are contained in the Wage Order applicable to your work. The employer is required to post it at your place of business. It is probably in your lunch room or other break room. You can also find there here http://www.dir.ca.gov/IWC/WageOrderIndustries.htm