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You may be the exception indeed; most of us are salaried exempt - so far I
haven't heard anyone on the list from California say they are not. Of course
the laws do vary by state.
In the US, because of Roosevelt, labor laws were implemented in 1938 that
gave every employee the right to overtime pay - for each hour worked after
an 8 hr day, the employee gets paid 1.5 its salary. After 12 hours it
becomes 2 times. This was done to battle unemployment as well as preserve
family life and give workers more capital. This law is the FSLA. Every
worker has the right to overtime pay unless they are exempt. The exemptions
are the executive, administrative and professional exemptions, and were
mostly intented for high profile positions where workers were well
compensated (doctors, surgeons, lawyers, CFOs, managers).
Over the years the implementation of these regulations became diluted, at
which point, in 1999, AB 60 "Restoration of the Eight Hour Workday" became
law, to restore overtime pay at 1.5 after eight hours. A big change was that
to be exempt from overtime, workers had to be salaried.
This meant that all contract workers would have to be paid overtime.
Contract shops (recruiters) revolted because it would mean they would have
to pay their contractors overtime and most likely lose all the overtime
hours because they would not be able to pass the 1.5 time fee to businesses.
Businesses would simply restrict their contractors to 8 hour days. Therefore
the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB) in
California set out to pass SB 88, which is the computer professional
exemption. For more on this .. http://www.andreas.com/faq-overtime.html.
Interestingly, it was again the NACCB who was behind reducing the computer
professional exemptions hourly threshold reduction by 14 dollars, which was
SB 929. It states that
" This amendment is sponsored by the California chapters of
the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses,
who argues that the current exemption language was enacted
just before the "dot.com" bust. Information Technology
("I.T.") services were booming and hourly compensation
rates were high. At the time, all highly skilled computer
professionals were paid in excess of the $41.00 an hour.
Those who fell below this cut-off point were, with minor
exceptions, the technical support and infrastructure
consultants who traditionally had been considered
non-exempt. However, since the passage of the original
exemption legislation, the sponsor argues that the I.T.
marketplace has declined and demand for I.T. professionals
has lessened due to the "dot.com" bust, the completion of
Y2K remediation efforts and the impact of the general
economic recession. As a result of this decline, many I.T.
professionals who formerly earned above the exemption
cut-off and were treated as exempt for overtime purposes
now have compensation levels below the current indexed
cut-off of $49.77 and are considered to be non-exempt and
entitled to premium compensation for overtime hours.
Therefore, the sponsor argues that this reality puts
California I.T. professionals and the businesses that
employ them at a competitive disadvantage. It costs
California I.T. professionals jobs and it encourages
California businesses to have their I.T. work performed
outside of California."
I don't know about you, but I find 14 dollars per hours too steep. My guess
is that noone opposed this law because most workers are completely unaware
that they are supposed to get overtime.
On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 7:16 AM, Hemstreet, Deborah <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>
wrote:
>
> I am perhaps expressing my ignorance, but when I read this article, I
> was stunned.
>
> Where I lived in Israel - I always insisted upon, and received, pay
> based on the hour. My reasoning - if I work overtime pay me for it - if
> not, don't pay me for it. Hourtime was based on total number of hours
> per week, irregardless of hours worked per day.
>
> When I came here to the US, I began working independently. I am also
> contracting with other companies. The same rate of pay is applied.
>
> Since when is it "standard practice" to expect technical writers to work
> as indicated in this article? Is this indeed standard practice and I am
> the happy exception?
>
> Curious people want to know...
>
> Deborah
>
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