Is my company’s “overtime” policy legal?
I work for a meeting and events (private) company where the nature of it consists of 40 hours/week in the office but often traveling for conferences and working well over the 40. Since we are full time salaried we do not get overtime pay. In place, we receive “comp” time off. They calculate it by: Every hour OVER 45 hours is 30 minutes of comp time (or time off from work). With this equation I will get 1 full day of comp time by working 61 hours in the week. My coworker worked 109 hours the other week. She got 4 days off. She will be working no less than 5 more conferences this year BUT we are only allowed 5 comp days MAX. Therefore, if she works another 100 hour week, she will get 1 day and that’s it. For the next conference she’d get nothing. Is this legal?
Unless you are misclassified as exempt, I think it's legal (not a lawyer).
Lawful or not, your company is 100% unethical with these policies in place. I suggest you find a different job than go through the hassle of a long, painful and expensive legal battle
Isnt this like saying they'll match 1% into 401k, but only up to 5k max? Also, how do you even work 109 hours? When do you sleep?
Nobody makes their employees work for 109 hours a week (almost 16/7). It is impractical, dangerous, inhumane and honestly a torture. Even notorious sweatshops with toxic work culture don’t do this for a week without getting paid. I am having a hard time believing this story. How does your one hour equate to 30 mins? This is bs and insulting. I wish your colleagues and yourself value your time better.
A client held an event that we managed. 15-17hr/day Sunday-Friday
It didn't sound so bad until you said max 5 days. That's some bullshit right there
Exempt? You can be asked to work whole day non stop 7 days and it's legal.
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What state are you in OP? And is your job actually an exempt position, as classified by the government? If you’re not exempt then I don’t think the capped comp day instead of OT day is legal.
I wonder, if the conferences are in different states, would it be the law in each state that matters?
Exempt and non exempt are set at the federal level. Comp can vary state to state but it’s always above the federal requirements.
Depends if you're overtime exempt. At the federal level basically everyone making a living wage is exempt but your state may vary
I also work in the events field and 100% your hours make sense. If you are putting on a conference your hours are typically 5:30/6am - 10pm or later depending if you are responsible for evening programs and sponsorships. You also have to arrive on site 2-6 days before, and typically work over weekends to prep, so as your hours are not unusual in the space but how you are comped for that overtime is not ideal. I’ve had 2 types of comp for working overtime. The first was hourly so anything over 8 hours a day/40 a week was time and a half. This is by far the best option but most event companies don’t want to have to pay you overtime so they make you full time with a set salary. The other situation I was in was in a tech company where I had unlimited PTO so when I was hired I negotiated having every other Friday off (minus when events were taking place) to help compensate for all of the long nights and weekends. My recommendation is to look for jobs in tech where in general the culture allows for more discussions around PTO and more flexible work hours. The second thing I’d recommend is looking into your state employment laws. I work in SF and there are a lot of protections for workers and it’s always good to know your rights.
If you’re in the US they can ask you to work 25 hours a day and it’s perfectly legal.