How can a company/manager/HR change your employment status from non-exempt to exempt without asking for my input? I work in an Employment at Will state, Texas, but does this even make sense? I’m afraid to ask why/how this happened without being looked at and then finding a reason to be laid off.
13 replies (most recent on top)
Even better, there are non-exempt jobs that also get bonuses. So you get the OT and a bonus!
So they can force their will on you to work hours for free !
I'm non exempt--doing the SAME job as exempt. I get OT -- they get bonuses. It was due to a job family/title re-org a couple of years ago. I've calmed down over time, but trust, I put down every minute over my 8hr day.
1ysd, state labor laws are in addition to federal labor laws. For example, the FLSA set's the minimum salary for exempt employees at $35,568 but CA is double the minimum wage which would be $58,240 currently.
@1evf, if you were truly doing the same job, you should have been classified the same.
exempt and non-exempt aren't the same as hourly vs salaried. mostly, but not 100%. Exempt means you can claim overtime, and there are some salaried positions that can still claim overtime.
Employment at will status has nothing to do with exempt/nonexempt or salaried/hourly.
You do have to look at your state laws with regard to your question - but the answer is - yes the company can do that if the job is considered to meet the criteria of the state.
First hand experience with this. My best friend who I've worked with on my team for many years was hourly. I was salaried, but we had the same job.
He was a "junior" guy in the pecking order (even though he was the go-to guy for a lot of stuff just because he'd been here forever). Management threw a fit when they discovered that he was the highest paid person on the team, due to the unrelenting workload, heavy hours, and lots of on-call duty - all getting paid by the hour.
So they "promoted" him to a salaried engineering position. His job didn't change one bit, but his pay was cut nearly in half. He's gone now.
Not every exempt job is bonus eligible.
Labor laws determine if you're supposed to be exempt or non-exempt.
At least you'll be bonus eligible now
Normally see this with team merges pr a title change (not necessarily a promo). Happened years ago to a lot of us.
Oh, I know why. It’s so they can make you work 11 hours days and pay you for 7.5 hours.
Do you have co-workers who do the same job but are exempt? Were you recently merged with another team where this is now applicable?
Have seen this with others who held positions in separate groups that were subsequently merged. It brought that particular position into one category and I know the non exempt missed the OT once converted to exempt. All was disclosed and discussed however. You have every right to inquire.