Is it legal to break down my pay so that my employer doesn't have to pay me over time?

My employer has setup my non-exempt position in this way.

1.) We negotiated a salary
2.) They took the salary and broke it down into 2 parts. Regular pay and OT pay.
3.) They calculated regular pay of 40 plus 10 hours of OT pay to equal our agreed upon salary.

Basically every pay period they say that they paid me 40 hours of regular pay on top of 10 hours of OT pay. They say that if I ever go over 50 hours they would pay me OT and if I ever go under 40 hours they will dock my pay. Is this legal? They did make me sign a paper with my pay broken down this way, but it was on my first day and it was… take it or leave it.

I live in California and I'm in the technical field. I believe that have more stringent rules for people in IT but I’m not sure. Any help would be great! Thank you SO much.

michr

what they are doing is totally legal
you are paid a set rate for 40 hours and overtime for the extra ten hours. this is your salary based on the assumption that you will work 50 hours if you work more then 50 hours your pay must increase since this is a non-exempt position. if you do not work your scheduled hours each week your pay can be reduced.
these topical fact sheets will help explain salary, exempt and non-exempt:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17g_salary.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17a_overview.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs23.pdf

loves christmas lights

Many employers are restructuring their pay deals with employees. Read this below, comparing it to your statement, sounds ok to me, Id get that in writting though. Its very odd, what your stating is like a regular persons job. I see no benefit to them at all, or none for you. Are they saying you will get the OT but some of the regular pay will be dedcuted, that would not be a bad deal, intodays job market, Id stay where I am.

Cubs Girl

IT position are normally salary exempt positions. So they can not dock your pay if you work less then 40 hrs a week. It seems that they are paying you at an hourly rate which leads me to believe that they can dock your pay. Hourly =pay for hours worked only + OT.

Valentine_Logar

Here is what you need to understand about salary:

2060 - that is the hours that annual salary is calculated on
40 - the hours in an average work week

Your management is making an assumption that you will work on average approximately 515 hours per year over (10 X 51.5)

You don't say whether you are "exempt" but based upon what you have described it sounds like the answer is part yes and part no. There is no such thing.

You don't say whether they are paying you 1.5 of your hourly rate for the 10 hours per week of OT. This is the California rule.

I am guessing the "dock" in pay would be they would only pay you for the hours worked at the "regular" rate of pay.

So while you agreed to an annual salary it appears that this is not really what you agreed to. What you really agreed to is a proposal of expectations. You don't really say are they going to pay you as if you worked 50 hours every week?

ksjennai

the facts you left us with with makes me think that you are a Salaried "At Will" employee.

You negotiated your own contract. If they snuck in a little tidbid(which is a big thing when they dock your pay) and you didnt catch it when you signed your contract, Then its on you!

They negotiated a Yearly salary with you, but then made yoou a "at will" employee(when they are basically saying that you get paid for the Hours you Worked)

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: