These lawsuits are by companies that are claiming some hourly-type employee= s are salaried, i.e., "exempt" employees which abuses lower grade, lower pa= id employees to work OT and not get paid for it. The cut as to the decisio= n as to hourly versus salaried (exempt) employees is usually besed on techn= ical training or specialization, or a "management" role. = Rich > From: nate@natetech.com > Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:56:25 -0600 > To: piclist@mit.edu > Subject: Re: [EE] Salary vs hourly pay > = > = > On Oct 11, 2007, at 4:11 PM, Vitaliy wrote: > = > > I noticed that most technical people work on a salary basis. Can = > > someone > > explain to me why that is? > = > Don't know for sure, but there have been a number of high-profile = > lawsuits against large companies in the U.S. lately about this. The = > Federal labor laws only allow employees to be salaried who meet = > certain requirements, and while the exact wording of the law doesn't = > come to mind at the moment -- the latest lawsuits (they're winning) = > seem to be related to the rules that state the employee must be in a = > autonomous decision-making type of role. > = > Typically "techies" *used* to have that type of job, when the techies = > were building the infrastructure and the bosses were just staying out = > of the way -- but with companies doing more standardizing and = > proceduralization of their IT and support departments, techies are = > somewhat commoditized now -- and not making major design decisions. > = > Thus the lawsuits, since the techies are in many cases no longer = > meeting the requirements of salaried positions under U.S. Federal = > labor laws. > = > (The next major step in that process if it were to continue the = > historically repetitive paths laid during the Industrial Revolution = > would be that we'll start to see both licensure and unionization of = > IT. But I don't think techies will take as easily to that as so- = > called "blue-collar" folks did. They're not as "exploited" and have = > livable salaries and good benefits. The fact that there's a lawsuit = > backlash right now at all, is a sign that there's some things about = > "IT work" that aren't so wonderful, though. Re: Dilbert.) > = > > Most of our employees (including the technical types) get paid hourly > > (overtime is x1.5). > = > Sounds reasonable. > = > > A question to the engineers out there: which one would you prefer, = > > and why? > = > I've done both, and neither is bad -- if you have a good direct = > manager who "gets" that sysadmin/technical support positions end up = > having some really strange hours sometimes, and that the amount and = > difficulty of the work goes up and down in relation to how bad the = > system's problems are. > = > I've never been unhappy with either situation, as long as I had a = > clueful boss who didn't try to play games like, "I'm sorry you were = > called all night long about problems and/or paged by the systems, but = > you still have to be here at X O'Clock sharp the next morning." > = > So to summarize: Most people can work with either salary or hourly = > wages, without difficulty, if they're not working for bad bosses. = > The phrase "You manage things and you lead people, not the other way = > around." is the best way to explain this. > = > -- > Nate Duehr > nate@natetech.com > = > = > = > -- = > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist _________________________________________________________________ Climb to the top of the charts!=A0 Play Star Shuffle:=A0 the word scramble = challenge with star power. http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=3Dstarshuffle_wlmailtextlink_oct -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist