Hourly vs. Salaried Employees

Your Two Cents: Are You an Hourly or Salaried Employee?

August 25, 2009

Overworked salaried employees are used to receiving the same pay no matter the extra hours they work, but there's an ongoing lawsuit between ex-employees and T-Mobile over whether or not hourly employees who email after hours should be paid extra for this time. I've been a salaried employee in every postcollege job I've held; what's your current status?

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16 Comments

3 years 16 weeks

I work 60 - 70 hours a week. Basically have no social lilfe. Suffer from a chronic permenant health condition and the hours and stress at work have taken a toll on my health. I ache, am always tired, get sick easily. I am salaried at 40 hours. How is it not slave labor?

The City Girl 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried aide to a U.S. Senator. Unfortunately with salaries there's usually no overtime, so when I figured out what actually make per hour once, I was appalled! The wonderful exception was when I was an aide to a California State Senator (though I'm sure it doesn't help this state's current economic woes!).

sonya ina 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried, which is great because I get paid vacation, but I definitely make it up with the overtime I work and don't get paid extra. Boo!

Zivanod 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried but I do get compensated when I work overtime.

ilanac13 3 years 38 weeks

i'm on salary and when you think about how you get paid on the basis of working 40 hours a week, and i typically work far more than that - it's kind of painful. oh well. at least it's a paycheck

mek123 3 years 38 weeks

I'm a consultant so I bill hourly and get paid OT but get salaried benefits. First time in 25 years that I'm not salaried and loving the OT.

OHmeetsBK 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried. I work at a school (as an administrator, not a teacher). We get a ton of paid time off. It's great!

imLissy 3 years 38 weeks

I started off hourly, and then I got promoted and was salaried. But then the government said we're too new to be salaried and we were hourly again, but I still get to keep my raise and have the same number of paid vacation days, so I'm in a pretty nice spot right now :)

bigestivediscuit 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried, paid 25 days vacay, and no, I don't have to "pay" by putting in extra hours.

Chaoticfury 3 years 38 weeks

Had a salaried job I hated now I have an hourly job I love. To each their own.

3 years 38 weeks

I am hourly, finished my graduate education. I've never had salary but I prefer hourly so far. Even with full time jobs, you may not get paid vacation, you may (should) still get paid holidays and/or accumulate paid time off (PTO). I currently love my hourly pay because not only do I get paid holidays and accumulate PTO, I get COMP TIME! Which means any time I work over my 40 hours a week, it is tracked kinda like PTO but separate from PTO. So if I worked 8 hours over 40, I get to "save" this 8 hours to use in the future. So if I wanted to take a day off, I would have to use comp time first and virtually never use my PTO (and this whole entire time my PTO keeps INCREASING!). It's like working a 4 day week but on paper it looks like I worked 5 days. I used to have a job that approved overtime a lot, which is nice because it's a time and a half, but eventually they freeze overtime and I always felt like I was cramming work into 40 hours which can be hard. Find a job with COMP TIME! Example, they won't approve overtime, but claim they are "flexible" with their hours.

Chrstne 3 years 38 weeks

Salaried high school literature & history teacher. I remember when I was younger, some guy used to brag about being a salaried employee, and would constantly put down the hourly employee. Seriously, I wouldn't care if I was an hourly employee...I mean, in some cases you wouldn't get paid days off...but they're relatively similar, at least to me.

3 years 38 weeks

RE: I wish I were salaried, that would mean paid vacation!! ------------------------------ If you are salaried, you almost always "pay" for the vacation with extra hours before and after the vacation to stay caught up (not to mention the every day unpaid overtime some companies press you to put in).

flyowsley 3 years 38 weeks

I wish I were salaried, that would mean paid vacation!!

Spectra 3 years 38 weeks

I'm hourly b/c my job is limited to the work I do at the lab and it's of a technical nature...I think there are rules about what a job involves as to whether or not you would be exempt or non-exempt salary-wise.

runningesq 3 years 38 weeks

salaried attorney (prosecutor)

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16 Comments

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