Salary
Salary is often a misunderstood concept not only by the working class, but also by employers. Particularly restaurants. Why the confusion? What even is salary? Why is it so goddamn hard to just pay people?
Okay, so firstly, the difference between Hourly and Salary is basically the difference between a job and a career. That’s not a great analogy, but hopefully we can make some sense of it.
Hourly - Straightforward. You get paid X Dollars for Y Hours worked in a given period of time. If you work more than 40 hours in any 7 day period, you receive at least 1.5x your hourly wage for hours over 40.
Shut the Front Door! I know, already some of us are thinking that our employers are ripping us off. If it’s a small business or independent operation your employer is probably only paying you overtime for hours over 40 during a given pay period. I’ve even see this happen in chain establishments. This is illegal at the federal level.
Pay period DOES NOT MATTER. Take any block of 7 days, add up your hours. If there’s more than 40 hours, your employer owes you time and a half for those hours over 40. Does not matter when the pay period starts and ends.
Some employers will pay the extra hours in cash at your regular rate of pay. They claim it saves on taxes. That’s a lie. Well, kind of. It saves the employer on taxes, for sure. For you, it just makes you lose money.
That’s great, but we’re talking about Salary.
Salary - You get paid a fixed amount every week. There are two kinds of salary. Exempt and non-exempt.
Exempt - You forego overtime and comp time. This sounds terrible, but your employer can’t just declare you exempt and make you work 60 hours a week without extra compensation. This is common practice in restaurants, and it is illegal.
There’s several ways to qualify for exemption, and you can do your own internet search, but the most common exemption will come as a result of having direct supervisory authority over 2 or more employees, and being able to hire/fire people at will. Speaking of at-will…actually, we’ll touch on that at the end.
Here’s a copied list of how you can be salaried and exempt.
Executive exemption: The executive exemption requires that the employee’s primary duties include management tasks such as the supervision of at least two employees, as well as the authority to both hire and fire employees.
Administrative exemption: The administrative exemption requires that the employee’s primary duties be related to management or general business operations, and that the duties must include discretion and independent judgement.
Professional exemption: The professional exemption requires that an employee perform work that is predominantly intellectual and that requires advanced knowledge, such as research, science, or teaching.
Computer employee exemption: The computer employee exemption includes computer programmers, software analysts, or similar occupations, with the employee’s primary duties consisting of development, documentation, analysis, creation, and testing of computer systems or programs.
Outside sales exemption: The outside sales exemption is used for employees whose primary duty is making sales, including obtaining orders, creating contracts, and selling services. The employee who is categorized in outside sales must spend the majority of his or her time outside the employer’s regular place of business.
Other exemptions: There are a variety of other job roles that are typically exempt from overtime. These include the following:
Independent contractors
Seasonal employees
Newspaper deliverers
Fishing operators
Agricultural workers
Babysitters and domestic companions
For more information, you can check out the FSLA Fact Sheet, which provides more detailed information on each exemption category.
The above exempt employee rules do not apply to blue collar workers, police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, and first responders of any kind, no matter what their salary is.
As far as the federal government is concerned, this is not up for debate. If you’re a line cook and being paid an exempted salary, you can collect unpaid overtime. This will happen at the State level and won’t be any less than the federally required amount, but it could be more. In Michigan I believe you can collect going back 180 days. I’ve personally done this, and it was a really easy process because I had my time stubs and pay stubs on hand.
If you are on salary, and do not qualify as exempt, your employer is obligated to pay you overtime the same as if you were hourly.
**** 6/17/2021 8:29 AM - I need to take a dump and go to work. We’ll finish this sometime in the next 24 hours- *****
**** 6/17/2021 10:16 PM - Where the hell was I…Salary..exemption… I don’t want my salary, I want my time. This is no way to live. *****
So what is the benefit of being a non-exempt salaried employee? Well, you get paid whether or not you work. The caveat is that you can’t just decide not to show up to work for 3 months and still get paid. Covid-19 isn’t a thing anymore (for white people). You have to be called off, or show up and be sent home. Or you could be told in advance not to come in for X number of days, like a paid holiday or something.
Basically if you are available and willing to work, and your employer does not need you that day, your salary is unaffected. And if you work over 40, you still get overtime. (We’ll get to comp time later). This can be good or bad for the employer, depending on the dynamic.
On the one hand, as an employer, you are paying people for doing literally nothing. (Of course, as most employers know, that’s essentially most of what your labor cost is…paying people to stand around doing nothing.) On the other hand, if there’s no work for 3 weeks you don’t have to worry about your employee finding a better job. Then you have to hire and train someone, or just run with less staff, which ultimately means more work for you. Which defeats the purpose of paying people to work.
So non-exempt salary is really where it’s at. Unless you have trustworthy minions to do your bidding for you. I don’t feel that “creative control” without subordinates to enforce your artistic vision is worthwhile.
Being exempt means you are not eligible for overtime or comp time. Period. Qualifying for exempt isn’t up to you, or up to your employer. That doesn’t mean you can’t receive overtime, and in fact many exempt employees do receive overtime or comp time at the discretion of the employer.
Regarding time, if you fail to work the full 40 hours the rules are the same as non-exempt salaried employee. You can be docked pay for failing to work your days. There are some freebies, like a 4-day pass for emergencies. So then what is “Comp time”?
Comp time or Compensatory Time is paid time off. Many employers will offer this instead of overtime pay. This is wrong. You may offer comp time in addition to overtime, or to an exempt employee that wouldn’t qualify normally.
Giving the employee the option can open the company up to a lawsuit, but is pretty unlikely. The kind of person that values their time more than their salary isn’t going to go chasing down a few hours of compensation. Maybe.
Comp time can be potentially cheaper than a bonus, or a raise, for instance. For the employee, there is literally no downside to receiving comp time. Unless you hate your family so much that you can’t stand being home.
What if my boss is taking advantage of me?
How do I take advantage of my boss?
Both of these questions will have the same answer when it comes to maximizing the amount of money you can milk from an employer. That answer is At-Will Employment.
At-Will Employment means you can be hired and fired for any reason at any time.
Yep. A lot of states, such as Michigan, practice at-will employment. This means there doesn’t need to be any kind of contracts or whatever. Tbh I googled “benefit of employment at will” and it sounds like…I mean, isn’t all employment “at will” ? Do other states require you to sign contracts just to wash dishes?
The employer can fire anyone, for any reason, at any time, without explanation. Or with explanation, doesn’t matter. “You wore the wrong shoes today, GTFO YOU’RE FIRED”. Fair game. There is an obvious set of exceptions. If you want to fire a black employee, you can’t say, “Jamal, you’re fired. For being black.”. What you can say is, “Jamal, you’re fired.”. When he asks, “For being black?” it’s extremely important that you say nothing, or “No.”.
Use caution when saying “No”, as it implies that there is a reason more substantial than your dislike of the negroes. The longer you talk, the longer you may accidentally reveal that Jamal Brown is being terminated for “being black”. This also applies to other minorities and even sodomite homosexuals.
You can totally fire people for being transgender, though. That freak show shit doesn’t fly on my watch.
Examples of Real Reasons People Got Fired (Legally).
Smelling bad
Clogging the toilet
Not liking “The Big Bang Theory”
Being the first person an upset exempt employee saw
Being ugly (Be careful doing this one, I think fat people might be protected)
Being better than me at Call of Duty
Examples of Real Reasons Employers Got Sued for Firing Employees
Being black
Being too old
Being too poor
Living in the wrong neighborhood
Having a gay Dad
I just realized I worded this really poorly. The things are reasons why the employer was fired. All of which, by the way, could have been avoided by simply not giving a reason.
Even with At-Will employment, you are still protected from overt discrimination.
So which one is best? Hourly, Salary exempt, or Salary non-exempt?
It really depends on what you want. What does your job mean to you? Is this something you’re going to keep doing? Is this a passion, or are you really just working because the State of Michigan requires you to? Do you want to help your company grow and succeed, or do you just want to get in and out as fast as possible?
Hourly - Trade your Hours for Dollars
Salary Non-Exempt - Same rules as Hourly but you also get paid if you get called off.
Salary Exempt - You have significant control over your work life, and possibly the work lives of others. Your employer has zero obligation to pay you overtime, even if you work over 40 hours. Suck it.