Transitioned to salary - skeptical

My boss just gave everybody raises to "motivate" them.

I'm not sure that I got a raise....in fact, I'm sort of feeling like I got my legs cut off.

Last year, my 4th quarter avg pay was 16% higher than the first three. We have also cut our hours to winter hours, which wasn't done last year. So that means that I've worked more per week in the past three months than I worked during the first nine. This is mostly because I negotiated paid lunches back in September, which vary from no lunch to an hour and a half...but probably average around 50 minutes.

Well, when he told me that he wanted to change it, he tried selling it by telling me I'd make basically 10% more gross than I did last year.

Well, going back in time, there were plenty of weeks where I worked all weekend...but there were also plenty of days that I cut out at noon. So in a theoretical sense, I am ok with the idea of salary. I'm just not sure HE understands salary.

When he presented it, I made it clear that I wanted a title, specifically, the job I do, assistant operations manager. He asked why. I told him that it's mostly for my resume. He acted pissed that I was thinking about my resume, and I simply told him that it's nothing against him, but I always have a plan b. We are a small old company, but we have a new owner. We have a lot of debt, and a good chunk of our sales are based upon the housing market. I'm always looking at plan B.

Well, I got an email today that says, he's not giving me a title for my resume, I'm free to call myself whatever I want. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'm sure we'll hash it out at some point.

So I guess my question is something along the lines of, do I decline the salary position, or do I take it, then keep track of my hours and only make issue if my hourly rate goes below what I make right now.

snowman said:

My boss just gave everybody raises to "motivate" them.

I'm not sure that I got a raise....in fact, I'm sort of feeling like I got my legs cut off.
.
.

So I guess my question is something along the lines of, do I decline the salary position, or do I take it, then keep track of my hours and only make issue if my hourly rate goes below what I make right now.

Click to expand...

Until you get comfortable with a key difference as a 'concept', neither you nor anyone else can answer that for your case in a long-term useful way.

Time is one of our least-replaceable, hence most marketable resources.

End of the day EVERYONE is being paid for their 'time', slick-sleeve Army Private Sojer, Bankster Executive on 27 million a year, even 100% commission Sales folks.

"Salaried" (as even raw recruits in the military are) is supposed to mean one is paid for the value add of what is accomplished within a given measure of time - a month or a year, not an hour - rather than how long it took in the doing.

Your 'boss' may or may not see it that way.

More important - long term - is how YOU view it...



Bill

I worked in a place one time as an engineer that pulled the opposite. They set up a new shop and hired a guy to get it going and paid him a salary. There was infinite work to do, so he put in a ton of hours. A year and a half later things were rolling pretty good, so he cut his hours way back figuring he had earned a few half days here and there. The managers just could not abide that and switched him to hourly so he had to work 40 hours to get his full pay.

He didn't last long after that and I don't blame him.

Salaried can be a serious trap if you let it.

Where I have worked, salaried meant that you are allowed to work as much overtime as you (they) want for the same pay. In fact at some of the places, 45 or more hours was considered the "normal" work work week. People that left right at 5:00 were not considered to be team players.

Tom

I personally would not take a salaried "promotion" unless it was 25% above what a normal 40 hr week would be, with the expectation of 40-45 hr average weeks and you can take half days without a permission slip when you have the opportunity.

In my opinion, putting someone on "salary" implies that the employee is a high valued, trusted and respected - one with a vested interest in the success of the company, and one that will adjust their schedule to hit those due dates, without being told to do so. It also comes with the freedom to work the hours they choose, to hit those due dates.

I would be concerned about taking it, in the way you describe - in that he didn't offer it to you as a raise based off of your 40 hr week, but off of your gross after OT.

There's a problem with this scenario, and he didn't think it through.

The concept of "salaried" changed a few years ago because companies (specifically, California tech companies) were making everyone exempt (from overtime) as a salaried employee. The problem is that they were taking advantage of this and paying people for 40 hours and making them work 50-120 hours.

Well, in California, one of the biggest states where this offense occurred, they made it so only Managers could be called exempt and non-managers weren't. That means even though non-exempt employees are salaried, they can make OT.

Generally the rule goes something like this: Show up for 30 minutes and you get paid for the day.

So, if Michigan has any employee protection laws that are even half as good as the California law, salaried doesn't mean you get capped if you are non-exempt.

So, in reality, he shot himself in the foot by not allowing you to be called a "Manager", therefore you are a non-exempt salaried employee, you get paid for 30min of work, but can get OT.

Looks like Michigan has similar exempt employee laws: (Where I got this citation from -->) Michigan Exempt Employees: What you need to know


Michigan law exempts anyone employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, earning a salary of at least $250 per week, from state overtime pay requirements (MI Stat. Sec. 408.384a; MI Admin. Code Rule 408.701).When an employer is choosing to apply either state or federal law, the employer must apply the law that is most beneficial to the employee.
In Michigan, an executive employee is defined as an employee:
• Whose primary duty is management; and
• Who supervises two or more employees.
In Michigan, an administrative employee is an employee whose primary duty is nonmanual work directly related to management policies or general business operations or the administration of an educational institution.
In Michigan, a professional employee is an employee whose primary ...

Take it as a blessing if you are non-exempt and salaried, you get your cake and eat it too.

….uuumm….at least the way it ustah be (and I suspect still is)--Fed and state labor commissions have
well defined categories/job descriptions of:

-salaried 'non-exempt'

--salaried-'exempt' (aka-excempt from O.T.)

IOW-just becuz one's 'salaried' doesn't necessarily make them exempt from O.T.

Probably regulations that your smart ass boss isn't aware of; whose only driving concern
is to chisel down whatever he pays you.

In my experience, when you are hourly and the boss wants to make you a salary employee with no change in
title or responsibilities, it means the boss is going to stick it up your
ass.

His pee pee gets smaller the more he pays you..

It gets bigger the more he screws you.


I'm sure, like most scumbags out there. He has to explain how he is "helping you", while trying
to screw you..

With the salaried/exempt stuff going on.. You'll get screwed and have to fight to get paid. And
lose your job in the process.

I'd put plan B into action ASAP.

Ok....now I don't mind calling myself a manager of some sort....and that's all I really cared about.

My boss isn't trying to cut back my pay...he's not that slight handed. He is just a tad bit passive aggressive and I work very hard to avoid confrontation. He's worked at this place his whole adult life....so he's not as cynical as I am. I've had a lot of people try to "help" me in the past at other workplaces....and they had motivations that were not exactly in my best interest. Well...actually, by the time it made it to me, the people giving the message totally thought that it was in my best interest, but that's just because they weren't that bright. Still good people, just live in the gray section of the crayon box.

Anyway, he likely took my comment about the resume as an insult. I've always been of the opinion that I'm ALWAYS trying to strengthen my resume...and the minute I stop, I'm not as valuable as an employee, because I'm not striving to improve.

Perry Harrington said:

There's a problem with this scenario, and he didn't think it through.

The concept of "salaried" changed a few years ago because companies (specifically, California tech companies) were making everyone exempt (from overtime) as a salaried employee. The problem is that they were taking advantage of this and paying people for 40 hours and making them work 50-120 hours.

Well, in California, one of the biggest states where this offense occurred, they made it so only Managers could be called exempt and non-managers weren't. That means even though non-exempt employees are salaried, they can make OT.

Generally the rule goes something like this: Show up for 30 minutes and you get paid for the day.

So, if Michigan has any employee protection laws that are even half as good as the California law, salaried doesn't mean you get capped if you are non-exempt.

So, in reality, he shot himself in the foot by not allowing you to be called a "Manager", therefore you are a non-exempt salaried employee, you get paid for 30min of work, but can get OT.

.

Click to expand...

just to add a tidbit to the CA thing: they can also salary employees with a bachelor degree and above.

Be careful with this situation, most bosses offer salary as a way to cut OT over the long run. When I worked for a past company for ten years, they would continually drag out the salary carrot, and the reason is that I was there literally 7 days a week for a decade. Basically lived there, slept in my car a few times when work was insane bc I was doing 20 hour days. And that was with no OT. The point is, they saw it as a way to kill my pay by about 30-40k a year. I refused.

He may be a jar head and took your request as threatening to walk...Could be failure of communications.

Best advice would have been to tell a tale and say you may be looking at a large house and the guy at the mortgage company said a job title is good. But too late for that now that you may have stepped in the slip.

I went salary about 6ish months ago. It came with a pretty significant raise. It was a no-brainer to me, even though I worked more Saturdays since then than I ever have. It would definitely be hard for me to go back to hourly...

That said, if your salary status doesn't come with a 25% increase in gross-pay, then screw it. It's not worth it. If it does come with the premium, and you feel overworked later on, then tell him that something needs to give - your salary, or the hours you're putting in. If that doesn't fly, then go with plan B.

Sooo, salary with no OT is the deal?
What is your title now?
Not sure why you want a name for your resume, you can put down anything you darn well please on this piece of paper.
Not sure why the boss is not giving a new job name with the new pay structure.
Does what you do change at all? Do people report to you directly? Can you fire people?
Bob

My mom (in a different industry) got sued and lost because she couldn't prove what her salaried employees were working as she didn't make them fill out time sheets. So you need to be keeping track of your time.

Even still, look up the exempt vs non exempt. And even if you can be required to work OT, that doesn't mean they can make you work 80 hours a week.

In my mom's case, I think they knew better and kept it in their back pocket so they could get some money to open a business together and compete.

None of what I do changes, I've been doing this for the last year.

People report directly, but I can't fire them.

I don't have a title or a written job description.

It sounds like we're all missing some information.

You need to find out (and get in writing!) what the actual position will be, so you wont get screwed over working tons of OT with no pay because you're a "manager".
Contact someone who knows the ins and outs of labour law. Even if it costs you a couple hunnerd bucks it could save you a fortune in the long run.
It's a lot easier to move on before hand than to try and collect wages owed afterwards.

snowman said:

None of what I do changes, I've been doing this for the last year.

People report directly, but I can't fire them.

I don't have a title or a written job description.

Click to expand...

Sit on the fence, get splinters in yer crotch.

Write your own job description.
Discuss and edit it with your next higher.
Agree a realistic title.

If someone reporting to you NEEDS to be terminated - safety, for one should not be compromised. Don't meditate about it. Exercise good judgement, and do it if it needs doing.

You need to be 'right', of course.

No policy or procedures? Draft and negotiate those, too.

Boss takes the credit?

That's fine. You are being paid as a member of his 'team', and he is sharing the risks.

If the company cannot or will not back you up?
Find one that will.

The combination of hard work done wisely and decisions made with good judgement is seldom in surplus, so pay will usually be better, not worse.

Bill

I have little to add other then being on both sides.

Hourly was nice to crank in the OT...when available.
It was nice to be able to leave at the end of the normal Work Day.

Salary---nice knowing what your going home with at the end of the week...in advance.
Not so nice not knowing a job was turning south and you'd have to stay and bring it back on track. But to tell you the truth, by the time I went on full salary...I was do that anyway.
My perk was if I could get all the eggs in a row...I could leave, just had to be in contact with office, in case. Only once did I find myself at the beach getting comfy and had to head back...most other times it was a quick walk thru fix...or shut that operation down and start working on the backup job.

Problem with salary...I always considered it taking responsibility to be keep the place on track, or your office, your department, your client...whatever. If you have good people above and below you...that can be an easy task. Add a bad apple to that mix and your screwed...especially if YOU do not have the authority to toss that Bad apple. then your always working to fix something and your always the one having the finger pointed at...not a good position.

As to title...telling boss you want it on your resume...that would have been the time for a small white lie. I'd try to smooze that over some how. Tell him you want to impress and have business cards made...anything but that your intention is to move up at the next job...that, while true is a bad rub.