Interesting. Is that affirmative obligation any more robust than “Fill your hours out on this timesheet and don’t log any over time”?

Some literary assistants are paid overtime, some have reasonable work hours that don't require it, and some are assholes like Andrew Wylie.

A little over a year the government mandated that employees at the hospital had to clock out for lunch instead of the company just automatically deducting a half an hour for the day because I guess they felt too many people weren’t actually getting lunches. Technically it is suppose to be an undisturbed lunch but all…

I use to work for a convenience store, Circle K, and they use to pull this crap on the managers. The way they figured out their pay from assistant (which was hourly) to manager pay (which was salary) was taking the assistant pay x 56 hrs and then divide by 40 and that was supposedly what they were making an hour.…

Labor attorneys LOVE those cases and will often work on contingency for people who are terminated for that.

Yes.

It doesn’t even require that. These things often get caught after someone leaves.

Same with many cable installers.

Except everyone is a wimp and will do what the boss wants and if someone stands up for themselves they’ll get fired and the other workers will say “Good riddance” while they get back to cutting each other’s throats.

All of that pales in comparison to the “outside sales” salaried classification abuse. You know that Terminix guy who comes to your office once a month and sprays for insects? He/she is classified as an “outside sales” professional and therefore is exempt from overtime. I kid you not.

Exactly. I worked for a company (collection agency*) that got sued because collectors were coming in to work extra hours for free to try to hit their bonus targets. The supervisors were turning a blind eye and possibly encouraged it because their bonuses were dependent hitting certain targets. They ended up having to…

Yup. You have to pay people for unauthorized overtime. You can fire them if they keep doing it, but you can’t not pay them.

Exactly. These are the same employers who try like hell to get something classified as an ‘internship’ so they can get someone to work for free when there is nothing that furthers their education or experience.

One of the litmus tests has also always been ‘can the employee set his/her own hours?’ and as Wylie so…

...but not if they worked long hours of their own volition. “What am I supposed to do, sit at the door with a stopwatch?” he said. “I’m not going to do that.”

In all likelihood, these assistant literary agents and production assistants should have been getting overtime all along even if they’re paid over the $23,660 salary. The salary amount is only one part of the test as to whether or not a job is exempt from paying overtime. In addition to the salary tests (level and…

Came to see this. Disappointed it took so long to find. C’mon Lifehacker commentariat! Get your heads in the gutter!

Careful. Some of the more squishy ones might not like the extra heat. Try the dishwasher out on a toy you’re not too fond of first.

First it was “He won’t run” Then it was “He will be laughed off the stage from his wall and Muslim ban comments” Then it was “Well he won’t win a primary” Then it was “The Establishment will get its act in gear and he won’t get nominated”. Well now he officially has the magic number. Baring a coup that could break the…

Blooper, starring Orrin Hatch.

And Donald came from a future where global warming has baked everyone orange and humans need tiny fingers to pry open the shells they use to hide from the radioactivity Donald himself causes in the present? Time travel sure is a wild ride.