A Bad Decision?
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (118449)
Gainesville, Florida
November 15, 2016 7:36pm CST
The Department of Labor has issued new rules which go into effect December 1st for management employees who earn less than $47,500 in salary. The new rule states that management employees who are on salary must be raised to the minimum threshold, or else be converted to hourly employees.
I have one employee in my department who is effected by this ruling. She is my Program Coordinator who works directly under me. She makes less than the required threshold. We were informed today by our HR Department that they are going to convert her over to an hourly employee instead of raising her salary to the threshold.
I thought she would be happy with the decision, but she was very upset. She currently works about 45-50 hours per week as a salaried employee, but once the conversion goes into place soon she'll only be allowed to work 40 hours per week. She is upset because none of her workload has been reduced, she still is responsible for getting her assignments done. But instead of having 45-50 hours per week to do her work, she'll have to get it done in 40. This is going to put a lot of pressure on her.
We have been directed to only authorize her to work overtime if necessary, which translates to "don't authorize any OT." So as a result, she is going to be be flustered trying to get her job done. Or else I will have to pick up her slack, which possibly means more work for me.
I would have preferred that she be given a salary increase to bring her above the $47,500 threshold, but I guess our organization is too cheap for that.
The interesting thing is, Trump has vowed to overturn the ruling once he is in office next year. So it's possible all of this could be undone soon.
Have you heard about this Department of Labor ruling, and do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing?
11 people like this
10 responses
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
She is a little less than $5000 away from the minimum threshold.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
@DianneN We'll find a way to make it all work. We are a great team, so we'll work together to make the best of a bad situation.
1 person likes this
@DianneN (246854)
• United States
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc What a shame. That could have been her yearly raise. I hope things work out for the best for her and you, too.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
16 Nov 16
I think it is wrong to make salaried employees work 45-50 hours. I ended up being paid overtime for all hours over 40 when I left one of my employers, I took them to the labor board.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
I don't force her to work that many hours. I try to keep her at around 40 hours, but she is very meticulous in her work, and unfortunately, now that she is an hourly employee, she is going to have to improve her organizational management skills to manage her hours and workload better. But I will help her get through it.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc No I wasn't implying that you were but many employers expect it of salaried employees and use salaries to basically have slave labor at least here in the Northeast. If she should be able to manage her workload in 40 hours then yes, she needs to get better organized. I was a supervisor but all my employees were part-time so I didn't qualify for the law at the time with the number of employees supervised to avoid paying overtime.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Nov 16
@BelleStarr If employers weren't treating salaried employees as slave labor, then maybe there wouldn't have been a need for the changes in the law. It's sad that many employers have treated their salaried employees this way.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc I can well imagine that because I have known many people who viewed being salaried as a status symbol.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
I think some people will like it and some won't. For morale purposes, many salary employees who get switched over to hourly view it as a demotion, event though they still retain their same title, pay and responsibilities. My employee feels this way.
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (95001)
• United States
16 Nov 16
Aw, that's a bummer for her =(
I would be upset if I were her as her work load isn't reduced, just her pay has been salary to hourly. If she would get overtime then I wouldn't be too upset if I were her because she'd get extra $
So does she get a hour lunch too?
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (95001)
• United States
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc
That is good =)
Hopefully you'll all work something out.. or else you'll be doing more work!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
@infatuatedbby I have too much work of my own to worry about, so I don't need to take on any more work from someone else!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
Yes, she gets an hour lunch.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Nov 16
I have heard about it and think it is a good thing if (big if) employers do the right thing, which in this case they did not. There were many reasons for this regulation, like calling employees managers so they would be ineligible for overtime at all.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
I think the intentions were noble, but the reality not so noble. In this case, my employee feels like she was "demoted" because she went from salary to hourly. She didn't lose pay or title, but she lost just about all flexibility on getting her job done in a way that worked for her. She is now going to be super-stressed trying to get her work done in 40 hours. Also, she feels humiliated that she now has to punch a clock, where before she didn't.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
@JamesHxstatic I think it's going to force my employee to better manage her time, which may not necessarily be a bad thing. I told her to look on the bright side of things, she'll now have more time to spend with friends!
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc I understand. Employers often take the easy way out instead of taking care of good people.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
Trump says he is going to reverse the decision, because it hurts small businesses. We'll see if it comes to fruition.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
I was really hoping our organization would have raised her salary to the new minimum threshold. It would have only cost them about $5000 to do so. A small price to pay for someone who routinely put in extra hours every week to better our organization.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Nov 16
@moffittjc They will be surprised and outraged if they lose her too.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
16 Nov 16
@JamesHxstatic I think that if she were to leave, I would probably follow her out the door. She is my "right hand man" and is who keeps me sane at work.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
18 Dec 16
She submitted her resignation on Friday. Smartest move she ever made. Our employer screwed her over big time. Thankfully, she saw the writing on the wall and bailed out. She was as stressed and overwhelmed as me on the job, so now she is finally going to be able to be happy (she has already found another job in Texas that is less work and much, much higher pay).
@LadyDuck (458233)
• Switzerland
17 Nov 16
@moffittjc I see. It is true that here in Europe only temporary workers are paid on an hourly basis, all the employees get a monthly salary.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Nov 16
They're not taking any money away from her, so it's not an issue of her bringing home less money. If anything, she'll make more money, because now she eligible to be paid for overtime. I think it's more of a status thing...people feel like they are more important when they make a salary versus being paid on an hourly basis.
1 person likes this
@Dena91 (15860)
• United States
16 Nov 16
Mike was a salaried middle management. He would work up to 50-55 hours some weeks, especially before he retired. He didn't want to become a salary worker because he knew they would work him longer and he would lose money. Hope your Program Coordinator will do okay and that president elect Trump is able to overturn that rule. It really is harmful to a lot of hard working folks.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Nov 16
See, the reason Obama had to make an Executive Order like this in the first place is because employers abuse the privilege with their salaried workers. Just because you can work a salaried employee as many hours as you want doesn't mean you should.
At least in my organization, they told all of us salary employees up front on the first day of work...we are expected to put in 45 hours of work a week. For a salaried employee, I think that is pretty fair, considering salaried employees usually make higher pay. But working 50-55 hours per week, that is asking too much.
1 person likes this
@Dena91 (15860)
• United States
17 Nov 16
@moffittjc Mike worked 65-70 hours at the end. It was really aggravating to say the least. He told them he wasn't going to continue on with it. They kept pushing, we took a leap of faith and he retired earlier than he was planning. They called him for over a month after trying to get him to come back because no one wanted his job. Gee, I can't understand why no one would want to take it.
1 person likes this
