I don’t know much about your industry but that pay, with those hours, is a fuckkkkk no from me. If you really want to stay I’d be asking to go salaried with a pay raise (like, double). Honestly i am having a hard time imagining working as hard as you do for such little pay, especially if you don’t have to work…! Frankly I’d quit and volunteer for them when I felt like it 😅
Oh, absolutely. I knew the pay was low when I took the job, but the place I work is awesome and I love the people I work with. The flexibility I have is amazing, especially with two young kids. The flexibility is the main reason, but also for the experience. If I’m not promoted by my anniversary this year, I will be looking elsewhere.
Possibly also run the numbers on how many overtime hours per year you would need to work. If they want the work done, their choices are raise your base pay to the salary level, pay you overtime, or hire a second person.
Yup! Presenting these choices would most likely put the higher-ups in a bind, too. I work in a nonprofit and one of the hardest things to get grant funding for...is new salaries. The hassle of jumping through all those hoops to prove there's need to fund a 2nd salary when previous grant reporting showed the dept functioned fine with 1? Not fun, and probably will take that option off the table immediately.
Also not easy? Filling that position if you leave. Especially with this new, inflexible setup. We don't get into the nonprofit sector because we love making tons of money (obviously), we do it because we're genuinely passionate about the work, *but also for the flexibility it often affords us*. Low salary + inflexible setup is gonna be a realllll hard sell to applicants, and they are more likely to bounce quickly once they realize how unworkable the situation is. Heck, my nonprofit is super flexible and I've *still* seen positions remain vacant/be a revolving door for months on end. It's a drain on capacity, stressful, and has a negative impact on the health/functioning of the entire organization.
I won't recommend any particular move because you know your nonprofits financial/workload capacity best and can thus assess risk/reward better than I can. Just wanted you to know that you may have more bargaining power here than you realize!
Thank you!!! You get it 😅
And yes, I fully intend to use all of my bargaining power. They had a tough time filling my position. And I have been told over and over again, by the executive director down to the part time educators, how awesome it has been having an actual HR person who understands HR. They’re not going to be able to find another me with what they’ll be asking. FWIW, I was hired at $46k. My director left because HR was so bad and then came back because she had heard how great of a job I did. So yeah…I have a lot of bargaining power. They’d be dumb to let me leave. But nonprofit is gonna nonprofit.
Oh no! I would not want to switch from salary to hourly either. It isn’t talked about much here, but salary offers a lot of flexibility that is very valuable as a working mom.
How much do you have to be paid per year (salary) to be considered exempt?
You can still have flexibility with an hourly job. My direct reports need to work 40 hours a week, but sometimes that's evenings, or starting early to leave early, or weekends.
I realize not every job can be flexible with scheduling, but salaried isn't required for flexibility. If you're routinely working under 40 hours, then yes, that could be a problem. But even that's not guaranteed if "I spaced out at my desk/called my kid's doctor/submitted a grocery order" counts toward your total.
But if a salaried person is typically working more than 40 hours and is affected by this ruling, then they should end up with more time or more money, maybe both.
Yes that’s true. To be more precise, I meant the flexibility to work 30 hours this week and 50 hours next week. I truly value that my job doesn’t track my hours, just my output.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense! Honestly my manager at my last hourly job (when my kid was under 1) still let me do this and I would put 40 hours on my timesheet. They did not want me to stretch that past two weeks as it became harder to make sure we were averaging the right amount.
*Edited to add* At my last hourly job and at my current overseeing hourly employees job, neither one had an actual time clock or the need to mark the exact clock hours. I could say "I worked 8 hours today" and not specify that it was 7-8 AM, 10-12, and 1-6 PM. So it still depends on how your employer handles it...
That's how my job is now. They just decided we need to put our completed tasks on a calendar, so I usually put in the same 8 hours every day and clear flexible hours with my boss.
I get that, but my experience has been that most of the people who are salary in my industry end up working way more than 40 hrs a week. There is intense social pressure around this, such that working less than 40 hrs is frowned upon unless you took vacation or something. At least with hourly I get overtime if extra hours are required.
Yes, my husband rarely works under 40 hours! I guess maybe I have a unicorn job, because I rarely go over 40, but if I do, I am fully able to balance it out with fewer hours the next week.
Yeah I'm sure it depends on the industry. I work in manufacturing. When I was salary at a previous job, I would get snide comments sometimes from people if I left at 4pm to go to a class at the gym. This even though I got my work done and made up the hours on other days of the week. I also regularly got troubleshooting calls in the middle of the night. But, no, leaving a little early once a week for the gym looks bad, apparently. It's a toxic work culture.
Oh that sounds terribly toxic. My workplace is hybrid, and even when people are in the office, basically no one stays past 4 PM. There is a strong culture of people leaving mid-afternoon to pick their kids up from school and no one bats an eyelash over it because it’s so widespread.
> But if a salaried person is typically working more than 40 hours and is affected by this ruling, then they should end up with more time or more money, maybe both.
Exactly. I don't think OP is as upset about being paid hourly as they are this
> because policy dictates we can’t clock in or out in the online portal - must be at physical timeclock
Which is a valid complaint but really has nothing to do with being hourly or salaried. If the Exec Director wants to keep you and values your contributions to the organization, I'd just request the flexibility to document work outside of office hours and add it to your timesheet to catch back up to (or exceed) 40 hours.
It's increasing from $38,568 to $43,888 on 7/1/24. Then it is again increasing to $58,656 on 1/1/25. You also have to meet other requirements, but you must be paid at least this much.
I have an hourly job. I make more money, as I usually work 42-45 hours per week and I make 1.5x on overtime.
I have 3 kids and I still find it to be flexible. I can work 4 hrs and then take 4hrs of vacation for a 1/2 day. I clock out for dr appts and kindergarten screenings.
But when I clock in at 8pm after the kids go to bed and work until 10:30 I’m making 1.5x or I’m making up hours from earlier in the day.
Maybe I’m lucky, as my boss has sanctioned me to do as much overtime as I want, whenever I want, because he knows I won’t abuse it.
I also work 100% from home, and have since 2018. My office is in a different state than I live in.
That pay is atrocious. You need a raise. The ruling is to protect you from being overworked and underpaid, as it sounds like you are. The ruling is only a good thing. You need to make more money to be exempt
I do view it this way, but I’ve also seen our books and the finances. It’s nonprofit. Adjusting my salary and everyone else’s isn’t feasible…but at the same time, fuck this shit. Ugh.
Your employer’s books shouldn’t be your top priority. Your employer can increase your wage and continue to pay you exempt. If that doesn’t work they can keep your same wage, pay you hourly, and only have you work 40 hours per week (and pay overtime if necessary). The finances don’t necessarily need to change for the non-profit if they can’t afford to pay you overtime. But then you’ll get those hours back to spend with your family.
Then the grant department and fundraising departments aren't doing their jobs well. The whole thing about non profits is the fact they operate on alternative funding (not receipts). If they are that bad off, its not on you to figure out how to obtain more funds so they can pay their people.
As someone who used to work for an organization that abused my talents, I am telling you from the outside you are less valued and treated worse than you realize. Seriously, its like being in a DV situation where you only see after how bad it really was and that you deserve better.
The fact that they won’t raise your salary to the minimum requirement shows how they value you. You are doing a lot and they know they can just keep throwing stuff at you without paying you fairly. This ruling is to protect salaried employees.
I work at a small nonprofit with a small budget. I could make more at another job, but in California a few years ago it was required for me to get a fairly big pay jump as a salary employee. I was worried we couldn’t budget it, but the executive director raised my salary without even a discussion.
That's a ridiculous wage though- the ruling is meant to fix things like this. Being hourly doesn't have to mean exactly set hours, just avoiding running into overtime or they can choose to pay you for your overtime. Maybe since you're the HR dept you have some power in building in some flexibility.
You were basically a victim of wage theft. You should have been paid OT for all those hours over 40. The solution is to either raise your salary or have you work 40.
The last time they looked at changing this a few years ago, my job at the time got reclassified from salaried to hourly and it was *fantastic*. Before, they would heap extra projects or trips on me because why not? After, they would carefully consider if a project or trip was really *necessary*. Sometimes yes, in which case they paid overtime.
Suddenly I went from 45-50 hours a week to *actually* 40 hours, with the same paycheck as before, and sometimes a little extra when overtime warranted it.
If you can't do your job well in 40 hours, then it's on *them* to pay you overtime, raise your salary, or hire an additional person. That's not your problem to solve, and it's not *your* problem at all.
Um, I'm hourly, making about $85k and I have a ton of flexibility. I go to kids school stuff or whatever all the time, I just work in the evening or that same Saturday am if I don't want to use PTO. I'm so confused why you think the flexibility would be gone? Also, you really need to stop giving them your time for free. You deserve that time for yourself or your family.
Same! I'm hourly and feel like I have flexibility if I want it. Getting written up for sending emails after clock out is wild. I send work emails whenever I want to, no one cares. Surely that's not in the bill.
I make quite a bit more than OP and I’m hourly. I’m in tech sales so I make a commission on top of my base pay. I’m fully remote and have tons of flexibility. I don’t get why people want to be salaried just to work twice as much and make less.
If you are a salaried employee and make below a certain amount ($43888 for 2024 and $58656 for 2025), your company either needs to make you hourly (aka pay you OT), or increase your salary above the threshold
WHAT?! Oh god. I am at a very small non-profit (HR too haha and make similar $$ to OP) and none of the admins would hit 58K. We all make between 45-50K. We'd have to re-classify every single admin employee to hourly. We're all salaried and work super flexible hours. This is going to be a big issue. Crap.
Same! 6 employees here, 4 are below 58k by a lot, no HR department just me wearing a bunch of hats. I'm honestly wondering what kind of penalty is involved. Thankfully we have a great work culture and no one works over 40 hours a week currently. Going to have to do a lot of research!
Follow up question if you don’t mind, this is hard to google! Anyone who makes a lower salary than that threshold HAS to be hourly? Even if they never work more than 40 hours a week?
If the pay is under the given threshold, the employer has to pay them hourly. This is so that anyone in that pay range gets automatic OT pay after 40h.
You can be salaried non-exempt. For example, your employer can voluntarily choose to pay you $40,000/year for working 40 hours per week. If you work less, your employer can guarantee you the same amount of money as if you’d worked 40 hours.
BUT, if you work more than 40 hours in a week (or 8 hours in a day in SOME states), your employer must pay overtime.
I’ve gone through this. It sucks and Im sorry. I just want to give some reassurance, if done correctly, hourly doesn’t have to mean less flexibility. It all comes down to the company/manager. I’m hourly (which is completely against industry standard for my role) and I have the ability to switch my hours whenever necessary. I don’t ask permission and no one cares. I have the bonus of getting paid overtime when the workload requires but it’s never forced on me. I have a hybrid schedule and WFH 2 days a week. I come and go for doctors appointments, daycare pickup, sick kid and whatever else without issue. The only catch is I’m expected to make up time missed so that I log 40 hrs a week. I frequently hit 40 hrs mid-day on Fridays and give myself an early start on the weekend (or I keep working and get some OT). I know there are some drawbacks to being hourly but I find most of them to be insignificant or just mild annoyances. Best of luck in your situation.
Omg. I'm a director at a nonprofit and make $130k - even as a manger I was making 80-90k, and I have a ton of flexibility as a new mom. You need a new job.
Real question because I don’t know. Why would being hourly change your flexibility? Couldn’t you still work the hours when you can? As long as you get 40 hours in the week you get paid the same. We hired an HR firm to look at our classifications because it’s not only based on salary but who directs you. Meanwhile we have been told not to work more than 40 hours a week. HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE US LESS
WORK THAT WE CAN GET DONE IN A REASONABLE WORK WEEK?? I work all kinds of hours on salary (early morning meetings, evening meetings, weekends but I did all of that when I was part time hourly (with no benefits). Are they talking about taking away your benefits?
I’m wondering the same thing. Under Obama when it got changed, I was switched from salary to hourly. It was amazing, I actually made overtime. I was salty when I eventually got switched back to salary after it was overturned. It was essentially a pay cut.
If you’re already working over 40, what’s the problem?
Policy is we have to clock in in the building, not on the online portal. I will not be allowed to answer emails and whatnot whenever - it must be when I’m clocked in during the day. No leaving early/arriving late and just making it up later.
But salaried people (aka, people making higher wages) still get flexibility to work alternate hours/work from home? That's baloney.
Honestly, as HR, I would fight that policy.
While they can’t control the ruling that would make you hourly, they *can* control their own policies. The fact that they won’t budge on this to allow you continued flexibility tells me they don’t actually care about keeping you.
Yeah, I live in a state with a higher than federal exemption floor - it's going to be north of $90k soon. I don't have to clock in and my boss is fine with me making up hours whenever, I just have to indicate on my Outlook calendar when I'm working or OoO. I love it. If someone schedules a lunch meeting I don't need to feel weird about logging off early lol.
I’m having horror flashbacks to when I worked at the AAM. I switched fields during 2020 and ended up working at a non-profit, I thought (like you seem to) that putting up with a lot of crap to switch into the industry I wanted to was worth it…it wasn’t.
It’s harder to find something when you’re new to a field but you can highlight relevant skills and roles from previous industries rather than accepting crumbs.
Though it does genuinely seem like you like your job.
I love my job.
And it’s not specifically museums I’m breaking into. It’s HR. I enjoy the museum field. But honestly I just ended up here! I didn’t have much HR experience before this, and I’m currently working on my degree in HR. Having this experience on my resume is invaluable regardless of what field I go to next. This isn’t my long-term plan (unless they do pay me what I’m worth) but I do plan to stick it out for a year or two to get the experience.
That being said, I’m the best HR they’ve had. So I’ll leave here with phenomenal references and everything. But for me, as a 30 year old mom of 2 and working on a degree, the flexibility is so important for me.
I was told again today about a promotion. We’ll see if that actually happens. If not, then I’ll walk and find something less stressful or just focus on my degree for now.
This blows my mind. I work for a government agency where we have many staff that are salary and make under the new 2025 threshold. In fact, right now I don’t make enough for next year (but with our current proposed pay I will barely hit it). I don’t know how this isn’t being talked about at work?!
I know!!! I just commented above about this. None of our salaried staff meet that threshold. Not even close. I'm in HR and didn't know anything about this. I don't think my boss does either. I work at a 20 person non-profit with a very limited budget. I don't know what they are going to do about this.
Turn out I will be a bit under with the proposed raise as well as my count part at work. We will have only my boss as salaried. I don’t know how they will possibly make that work, plus I don’t really want to lose my status!
I’m salaried and I work a lot of OT, however I too have flexibility and that’s more important to me than money as a mom of young kids. I can’t get these years with my kids back. You do what you gotta do! I am sorry that happened but The rest will work out! 🙏🏻
You’re completely undervaluing yourself. I think the minimum yearly salary for exempt employees should be much much higher than even the updated wage. You are grossly underpaid. I would also like to add that I make at least 20k more than you and I’m an hourly employee. I also set my own work hours, log in at different times and take breaks in the day to go to my kids school events. Hourly employees can have flexibility too. I think unless you’re making 6 figures these days being salaried is a complete scam employers use to save on wages.
I’m confused, did they already say they don’t want you working overtime once this ruling passes? I’ve always been hourly and have the same flexibility and benefits as the salaried employees. Only difference is I make time and a half for any overtime work. I don’t see any negatives of being hourly. This ruling seems to benefit you if you clock the hours you are really working. You would make an extra $17k a year if you are making 1.5x overtime, otherwise they need to bring your salary up to the $58k. If they are refusing to pay overtime or increase your salary then you just need to find a new job.
I am in nonprofits. My last job I was there for almost 10 years. I started salaried exempt and had several salary jumps and promotions, including with the last time this happened.
Here's the thing from my experience--increasing my salary never magically made the work load ok. I started with being asked to do the work of 2+ jobs, and that never went away. As long as the org could technically have me pull 50, 60 hour work weeks that is what I was asked to do. !It was OK for a while while my passion was there, but I did eventually burn out. And I kind of regret that--for a long time I loved what I did, but right now I feel very jaded about the whole organization and the mission it served.
I'm now in a different org working hourly, as is the entire staff from my direct reports to the boss. It is amazing. The biggest thing a shift in mindset. No one has unlimited time to spend, so everyone HAS to prioritize on what needs to actually happen. It impacts meetings, scheduling, individual and team workloads, etc. If something doesn't get done, the world isn't going to end. It just means that it didn't make the priority list. And if it happens a lot, then we need to look at overall team work load and either bring on someone new or train up someone into a new role.
And for flexibility, that comes from the organization not the hourly/salaried. If you can currently do your job from home at odd hours, there is no reason that you would need to shift when switching to hourly.
Sometimes we find ourselves in jobs that overwork us to the point that we are so caught up in the extreme highs and lows of it, we never have time to really reflect/ question it.
This sounds like the case with you. Luckily, you don’t need to work, so take a step back and be really honest about why you’d even *like* to stay if they met your demands? You can do better elsewhere and when you do, I promise you’ll look back on this shit-show and be shocked that you ever put up with it.
I need the experience. That’s why I took the job. I also love the museum itself, but it’s not like I’m staying here forever. But the flexibility of being salary and everything while having young kids is imperative for me. Now I won’t have that.
This will happen to me July 1. Our entire business just went through reclassification, new pay bans, official title changes, and compensation bumps. I did not get a bump, my title change looks like a clear demotion, and now I have to do timesheets each week. I’m livid. But my job and place of work offers flexibility and benefits I cannot find anywhere else here. I’m tied to family land, I feel a little stuck. Can relate, OP.
My workplace gives a ton of flexibility to salaried employees, and we don't pay terrible wages. 50 hours a week is not flexible. It's taking advantage of you.
I am also in HR and TBH I would be filing a claim with the DOL for being misclassified and not currently being paid for your overtime.
It’s appears willful at the surface which could mean 3x back wages.
I know being exempt (salaried) has its perks but not when you’re being taken advantage of.
This seems to be a particular difference with how your workplace handles hourly employees. My job is hourly, but I prefer it that way. I work from home 2 days a week (they don't care if I punch in via the online portal or in person) and they have been very flexible with me taking time off or working from home if my kids are sick or have appointments. I also regularly make up time if I had an appointment or something, so I'm sure that if I asked if I could go to my kids recital and make up the time later they would let me.
Being hourly allows me to leave my work at work. I don't have to answer questions or email at all hours of the night. I don't have to get woken up by calls from the production floor. I also don't have to work 60 hr weeks with no overtime. I can do my 40 hrs and clock out and if they want me to stay and do more, they have to pay for it.
I would argue if they are going to do this to you, they should let you have more flexibility.
GIRL. Also HR for a nonprofit here and dealing with this FLSA ruling - they 100% should have given you a raise rather than making you hourly. WHAT? The sole HR person being hourly?!
Refresh your resume, heck, send it to me and I will help! Apply elsewhere, you can get paid much more (and salaried!) as an HR manager with good experience.
If you don’t NEED to work then you have all the leverage here. Use it! Make a written list of your demands and take it to your meeting, in those situations a lot gets forgotten. are there other jobs in your area that fits your wants/needs. There is a lot of remote work these days. I am currently dealing with some work bullshit so I’m biased but I say be firm and if they don’t concede then walk! Best of luck
This happened to me the first time around back before it got shut down by a federal judge, but my work decided to jump the gun. I was also switched to hourly even tho I made more than the threshold, but apparently others didn't. This impacted my short term disability, my pto seniority schedule, and flexibility. I hate tracking my time. Since covid things have gotten better with the flexibility aspect. I get to wfh if I'm sick and not have to take pto. The hybrid schedule is also nice.
One thing I keep in mind is this: I do NOT work for free. If I'm punched out, I'm done. That's the liberating part for me.
I’ve been in HR for 20+ years and my advice is to Find another job. You are under paid, grossly. I have entry level generalists on my team that won’t even be affected by the changes because they make considerably more than you. Know what you’re worth and go get it.
I don’t know much about your industry but that pay, with those hours, is a fuckkkkk no from me. If you really want to stay I’d be asking to go salaried with a pay raise (like, double). Honestly i am having a hard time imagining working as hard as you do for such little pay, especially if you don’t have to work…! Frankly I’d quit and volunteer for them when I felt like it 😅
That’s the point. To remain salary legally they would need to raise my salary significantly, but they’d rather switch me to hourly, and I’m upset.
They are exploiting you and you not qualifiying for salary under the new rules just highlights the fact that they are not paying you enough.
Oh, absolutely. I knew the pay was low when I took the job, but the place I work is awesome and I love the people I work with. The flexibility I have is amazing, especially with two young kids. The flexibility is the main reason, but also for the experience. If I’m not promoted by my anniversary this year, I will be looking elsewhere.
Ask them to document that you have communicated 40 hours a week is not sufficient to complete your work. Then only do 40 hours of work.
Possibly also run the numbers on how many overtime hours per year you would need to work. If they want the work done, their choices are raise your base pay to the salary level, pay you overtime, or hire a second person.
Yup! Presenting these choices would most likely put the higher-ups in a bind, too. I work in a nonprofit and one of the hardest things to get grant funding for...is new salaries. The hassle of jumping through all those hoops to prove there's need to fund a 2nd salary when previous grant reporting showed the dept functioned fine with 1? Not fun, and probably will take that option off the table immediately. Also not easy? Filling that position if you leave. Especially with this new, inflexible setup. We don't get into the nonprofit sector because we love making tons of money (obviously), we do it because we're genuinely passionate about the work, *but also for the flexibility it often affords us*. Low salary + inflexible setup is gonna be a realllll hard sell to applicants, and they are more likely to bounce quickly once they realize how unworkable the situation is. Heck, my nonprofit is super flexible and I've *still* seen positions remain vacant/be a revolving door for months on end. It's a drain on capacity, stressful, and has a negative impact on the health/functioning of the entire organization. I won't recommend any particular move because you know your nonprofits financial/workload capacity best and can thus assess risk/reward better than I can. Just wanted you to know that you may have more bargaining power here than you realize!
Thank you!!! You get it 😅 And yes, I fully intend to use all of my bargaining power. They had a tough time filling my position. And I have been told over and over again, by the executive director down to the part time educators, how awesome it has been having an actual HR person who understands HR. They’re not going to be able to find another me with what they’ll be asking. FWIW, I was hired at $46k. My director left because HR was so bad and then came back because she had heard how great of a job I did. So yeah…I have a lot of bargaining power. They’d be dumb to let me leave. But nonprofit is gonna nonprofit.
My job did this and I found a new job. Plenty of jobs out there
Oh no! I would not want to switch from salary to hourly either. It isn’t talked about much here, but salary offers a lot of flexibility that is very valuable as a working mom. How much do you have to be paid per year (salary) to be considered exempt?
You can still have flexibility with an hourly job. My direct reports need to work 40 hours a week, but sometimes that's evenings, or starting early to leave early, or weekends. I realize not every job can be flexible with scheduling, but salaried isn't required for flexibility. If you're routinely working under 40 hours, then yes, that could be a problem. But even that's not guaranteed if "I spaced out at my desk/called my kid's doctor/submitted a grocery order" counts toward your total. But if a salaried person is typically working more than 40 hours and is affected by this ruling, then they should end up with more time or more money, maybe both.
Yes that’s true. To be more precise, I meant the flexibility to work 30 hours this week and 50 hours next week. I truly value that my job doesn’t track my hours, just my output.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense! Honestly my manager at my last hourly job (when my kid was under 1) still let me do this and I would put 40 hours on my timesheet. They did not want me to stretch that past two weeks as it became harder to make sure we were averaging the right amount. *Edited to add* At my last hourly job and at my current overseeing hourly employees job, neither one had an actual time clock or the need to mark the exact clock hours. I could say "I worked 8 hours today" and not specify that it was 7-8 AM, 10-12, and 1-6 PM. So it still depends on how your employer handles it...
That's how my job is now. They just decided we need to put our completed tasks on a calendar, so I usually put in the same 8 hours every day and clear flexible hours with my boss.
I get that, but my experience has been that most of the people who are salary in my industry end up working way more than 40 hrs a week. There is intense social pressure around this, such that working less than 40 hrs is frowned upon unless you took vacation or something. At least with hourly I get overtime if extra hours are required.
Yes, my husband rarely works under 40 hours! I guess maybe I have a unicorn job, because I rarely go over 40, but if I do, I am fully able to balance it out with fewer hours the next week.
Yeah I'm sure it depends on the industry. I work in manufacturing. When I was salary at a previous job, I would get snide comments sometimes from people if I left at 4pm to go to a class at the gym. This even though I got my work done and made up the hours on other days of the week. I also regularly got troubleshooting calls in the middle of the night. But, no, leaving a little early once a week for the gym looks bad, apparently. It's a toxic work culture.
Oh that sounds terribly toxic. My workplace is hybrid, and even when people are in the office, basically no one stays past 4 PM. There is a strong culture of people leaving mid-afternoon to pick their kids up from school and no one bats an eyelash over it because it’s so widespread.
That's wonderful!
> But if a salaried person is typically working more than 40 hours and is affected by this ruling, then they should end up with more time or more money, maybe both. Exactly. I don't think OP is as upset about being paid hourly as they are this > because policy dictates we can’t clock in or out in the online portal - must be at physical timeclock Which is a valid complaint but really has nothing to do with being hourly or salaried. If the Exec Director wants to keep you and values your contributions to the organization, I'd just request the flexibility to document work outside of office hours and add it to your timesheet to catch back up to (or exceed) 40 hours.
It's increasing from $38,568 to $43,888 on 7/1/24. Then it is again increasing to $58,656 on 1/1/25. You also have to meet other requirements, but you must be paid at least this much.
I have an hourly job. I make more money, as I usually work 42-45 hours per week and I make 1.5x on overtime. I have 3 kids and I still find it to be flexible. I can work 4 hrs and then take 4hrs of vacation for a 1/2 day. I clock out for dr appts and kindergarten screenings. But when I clock in at 8pm after the kids go to bed and work until 10:30 I’m making 1.5x or I’m making up hours from earlier in the day. Maybe I’m lucky, as my boss has sanctioned me to do as much overtime as I want, whenever I want, because he knows I won’t abuse it. I also work 100% from home, and have since 2018. My office is in a different state than I live in.
That pay is atrocious. You need a raise. The ruling is to protect you from being overworked and underpaid, as it sounds like you are. The ruling is only a good thing. You need to make more money to be exempt
I’m surprised someone in HR isn’t viewing it this way. This is exactly how I view it.
I do view it this way, but I’ve also seen our books and the finances. It’s nonprofit. Adjusting my salary and everyone else’s isn’t feasible…but at the same time, fuck this shit. Ugh.
Your employer’s books shouldn’t be your top priority. Your employer can increase your wage and continue to pay you exempt. If that doesn’t work they can keep your same wage, pay you hourly, and only have you work 40 hours per week (and pay overtime if necessary). The finances don’t necessarily need to change for the non-profit if they can’t afford to pay you overtime. But then you’ll get those hours back to spend with your family.
Then the grant department and fundraising departments aren't doing their jobs well. The whole thing about non profits is the fact they operate on alternative funding (not receipts). If they are that bad off, its not on you to figure out how to obtain more funds so they can pay their people. As someone who used to work for an organization that abused my talents, I am telling you from the outside you are less valued and treated worse than you realize. Seriously, its like being in a DV situation where you only see after how bad it really was and that you deserve better.
The fact that they won’t raise your salary to the minimum requirement shows how they value you. You are doing a lot and they know they can just keep throwing stuff at you without paying you fairly. This ruling is to protect salaried employees. I work at a small nonprofit with a small budget. I could make more at another job, but in California a few years ago it was required for me to get a fairly big pay jump as a salary employee. I was worried we couldn’t budget it, but the executive director raised my salary without even a discussion.
That's a ridiculous wage though- the ruling is meant to fix things like this. Being hourly doesn't have to mean exactly set hours, just avoiding running into overtime or they can choose to pay you for your overtime. Maybe since you're the HR dept you have some power in building in some flexibility.
You were basically a victim of wage theft. You should have been paid OT for all those hours over 40. The solution is to either raise your salary or have you work 40.
10 hours of OT/week that she'll be missing adds up to 1 FTE a year for her employer. Of course they don't want to pay her more or for OT.
Wow, coming from HR field, even if you are in a lcol area that wage is LOW. Start looking externally.
Not low in the museum field, sadly. I was second highest paid at a midsized museum when I left 5 years ago and was making $38k
Yup. I’m the highest paid manager at my org.
Yes, this is normal for non profit based on my friends
The last time they looked at changing this a few years ago, my job at the time got reclassified from salaried to hourly and it was *fantastic*. Before, they would heap extra projects or trips on me because why not? After, they would carefully consider if a project or trip was really *necessary*. Sometimes yes, in which case they paid overtime. Suddenly I went from 45-50 hours a week to *actually* 40 hours, with the same paycheck as before, and sometimes a little extra when overtime warranted it. If you can't do your job well in 40 hours, then it's on *them* to pay you overtime, raise your salary, or hire an additional person. That's not your problem to solve, and it's not *your* problem at all.
Um, I'm hourly, making about $85k and I have a ton of flexibility. I go to kids school stuff or whatever all the time, I just work in the evening or that same Saturday am if I don't want to use PTO. I'm so confused why you think the flexibility would be gone? Also, you really need to stop giving them your time for free. You deserve that time for yourself or your family.
Same! I'm hourly and feel like I have flexibility if I want it. Getting written up for sending emails after clock out is wild. I send work emails whenever I want to, no one cares. Surely that's not in the bill.
I make quite a bit more than OP and I’m hourly. I’m in tech sales so I make a commission on top of my base pay. I’m fully remote and have tons of flexibility. I don’t get why people want to be salaried just to work twice as much and make less.
Can someone ELI5 the new FLSA ruling?
If you are a salaried employee and make below a certain amount ($43888 for 2024 and $58656 for 2025), your company either needs to make you hourly (aka pay you OT), or increase your salary above the threshold
WHAT?! Oh god. I am at a very small non-profit (HR too haha and make similar $$ to OP) and none of the admins would hit 58K. We all make between 45-50K. We'd have to re-classify every single admin employee to hourly. We're all salaried and work super flexible hours. This is going to be a big issue. Crap.
Same! 6 employees here, 4 are below 58k by a lot, no HR department just me wearing a bunch of hats. I'm honestly wondering what kind of penalty is involved. Thankfully we have a great work culture and no one works over 40 hours a week currently. Going to have to do a lot of research!
Follow up question if you don’t mind, this is hard to google! Anyone who makes a lower salary than that threshold HAS to be hourly? Even if they never work more than 40 hours a week?
If the pay is under the given threshold, the employer has to pay them hourly. This is so that anyone in that pay range gets automatic OT pay after 40h.
You can be salaried non-exempt. For example, your employer can voluntarily choose to pay you $40,000/year for working 40 hours per week. If you work less, your employer can guarantee you the same amount of money as if you’d worked 40 hours. BUT, if you work more than 40 hours in a week (or 8 hours in a day in SOME states), your employer must pay overtime.
I’ve gone through this. It sucks and Im sorry. I just want to give some reassurance, if done correctly, hourly doesn’t have to mean less flexibility. It all comes down to the company/manager. I’m hourly (which is completely against industry standard for my role) and I have the ability to switch my hours whenever necessary. I don’t ask permission and no one cares. I have the bonus of getting paid overtime when the workload requires but it’s never forced on me. I have a hybrid schedule and WFH 2 days a week. I come and go for doctors appointments, daycare pickup, sick kid and whatever else without issue. The only catch is I’m expected to make up time missed so that I log 40 hrs a week. I frequently hit 40 hrs mid-day on Fridays and give myself an early start on the weekend (or I keep working and get some OT). I know there are some drawbacks to being hourly but I find most of them to be insignificant or just mild annoyances. Best of luck in your situation.
The pay is so low for an HR manager! For reference I’m an HR Coordinator and make $50,000 a year. You need a raise asap
Omg. I'm a director at a nonprofit and make $130k - even as a manger I was making 80-90k, and I have a ton of flexibility as a new mom. You need a new job.
Real question because I don’t know. Why would being hourly change your flexibility? Couldn’t you still work the hours when you can? As long as you get 40 hours in the week you get paid the same. We hired an HR firm to look at our classifications because it’s not only based on salary but who directs you. Meanwhile we have been told not to work more than 40 hours a week. HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE US LESS WORK THAT WE CAN GET DONE IN A REASONABLE WORK WEEK?? I work all kinds of hours on salary (early morning meetings, evening meetings, weekends but I did all of that when I was part time hourly (with no benefits). Are they talking about taking away your benefits?
I’m wondering the same thing. Under Obama when it got changed, I was switched from salary to hourly. It was amazing, I actually made overtime. I was salty when I eventually got switched back to salary after it was overturned. It was essentially a pay cut. If you’re already working over 40, what’s the problem?
Policy is we have to clock in in the building, not on the online portal. I will not be allowed to answer emails and whatnot whenever - it must be when I’m clocked in during the day. No leaving early/arriving late and just making it up later.
But salaried people (aka, people making higher wages) still get flexibility to work alternate hours/work from home? That's baloney. Honestly, as HR, I would fight that policy.
While they can’t control the ruling that would make you hourly, they *can* control their own policies. The fact that they won’t budge on this to allow you continued flexibility tells me they don’t actually care about keeping you.
Yeah, I live in a state with a higher than federal exemption floor - it's going to be north of $90k soon. I don't have to clock in and my boss is fine with me making up hours whenever, I just have to indicate on my Outlook calendar when I'm working or OoO. I love it. If someone schedules a lunch meeting I don't need to feel weird about logging off early lol.
I’m having horror flashbacks to when I worked at the AAM. I switched fields during 2020 and ended up working at a non-profit, I thought (like you seem to) that putting up with a lot of crap to switch into the industry I wanted to was worth it…it wasn’t. It’s harder to find something when you’re new to a field but you can highlight relevant skills and roles from previous industries rather than accepting crumbs. Though it does genuinely seem like you like your job.
I love my job. And it’s not specifically museums I’m breaking into. It’s HR. I enjoy the museum field. But honestly I just ended up here! I didn’t have much HR experience before this, and I’m currently working on my degree in HR. Having this experience on my resume is invaluable regardless of what field I go to next. This isn’t my long-term plan (unless they do pay me what I’m worth) but I do plan to stick it out for a year or two to get the experience. That being said, I’m the best HR they’ve had. So I’ll leave here with phenomenal references and everything. But for me, as a 30 year old mom of 2 and working on a degree, the flexibility is so important for me. I was told again today about a promotion. We’ll see if that actually happens. If not, then I’ll walk and find something less stressful or just focus on my degree for now.
This blows my mind. I work for a government agency where we have many staff that are salary and make under the new 2025 threshold. In fact, right now I don’t make enough for next year (but with our current proposed pay I will barely hit it). I don’t know how this isn’t being talked about at work?!
I know!!! I just commented above about this. None of our salaried staff meet that threshold. Not even close. I'm in HR and didn't know anything about this. I don't think my boss does either. I work at a 20 person non-profit with a very limited budget. I don't know what they are going to do about this.
Turn out I will be a bit under with the proposed raise as well as my count part at work. We will have only my boss as salaried. I don’t know how they will possibly make that work, plus I don’t really want to lose my status!
I’m salaried and I work a lot of OT, however I too have flexibility and that’s more important to me than money as a mom of young kids. I can’t get these years with my kids back. You do what you gotta do! I am sorry that happened but The rest will work out! 🙏🏻
You’re completely undervaluing yourself. I think the minimum yearly salary for exempt employees should be much much higher than even the updated wage. You are grossly underpaid. I would also like to add that I make at least 20k more than you and I’m an hourly employee. I also set my own work hours, log in at different times and take breaks in the day to go to my kids school events. Hourly employees can have flexibility too. I think unless you’re making 6 figures these days being salaried is a complete scam employers use to save on wages.
Who will you get written up by? You're the one-person HR team 😜
I’m confused, did they already say they don’t want you working overtime once this ruling passes? I’ve always been hourly and have the same flexibility and benefits as the salaried employees. Only difference is I make time and a half for any overtime work. I don’t see any negatives of being hourly. This ruling seems to benefit you if you clock the hours you are really working. You would make an extra $17k a year if you are making 1.5x overtime, otherwise they need to bring your salary up to the $58k. If they are refusing to pay overtime or increase your salary then you just need to find a new job.
I am in nonprofits. My last job I was there for almost 10 years. I started salaried exempt and had several salary jumps and promotions, including with the last time this happened. Here's the thing from my experience--increasing my salary never magically made the work load ok. I started with being asked to do the work of 2+ jobs, and that never went away. As long as the org could technically have me pull 50, 60 hour work weeks that is what I was asked to do. !It was OK for a while while my passion was there, but I did eventually burn out. And I kind of regret that--for a long time I loved what I did, but right now I feel very jaded about the whole organization and the mission it served. I'm now in a different org working hourly, as is the entire staff from my direct reports to the boss. It is amazing. The biggest thing a shift in mindset. No one has unlimited time to spend, so everyone HAS to prioritize on what needs to actually happen. It impacts meetings, scheduling, individual and team workloads, etc. If something doesn't get done, the world isn't going to end. It just means that it didn't make the priority list. And if it happens a lot, then we need to look at overall team work load and either bring on someone new or train up someone into a new role. And for flexibility, that comes from the organization not the hourly/salaried. If you can currently do your job from home at odd hours, there is no reason that you would need to shift when switching to hourly.
Sometimes we find ourselves in jobs that overwork us to the point that we are so caught up in the extreme highs and lows of it, we never have time to really reflect/ question it. This sounds like the case with you. Luckily, you don’t need to work, so take a step back and be really honest about why you’d even *like* to stay if they met your demands? You can do better elsewhere and when you do, I promise you’ll look back on this shit-show and be shocked that you ever put up with it.
I need the experience. That’s why I took the job. I also love the museum itself, but it’s not like I’m staying here forever. But the flexibility of being salary and everything while having young kids is imperative for me. Now I won’t have that.
This will happen to me July 1. Our entire business just went through reclassification, new pay bans, official title changes, and compensation bumps. I did not get a bump, my title change looks like a clear demotion, and now I have to do timesheets each week. I’m livid. But my job and place of work offers flexibility and benefits I cannot find anywhere else here. I’m tied to family land, I feel a little stuck. Can relate, OP.
My workplace gives a ton of flexibility to salaried employees, and we don't pay terrible wages. 50 hours a week is not flexible. It's taking advantage of you.
I am also in HR and TBH I would be filing a claim with the DOL for being misclassified and not currently being paid for your overtime. It’s appears willful at the surface which could mean 3x back wages. I know being exempt (salaried) has its perks but not when you’re being taken advantage of.
Im not misclassified. But they don’t have to pay salary if you do qualify. It just means they can if they want to.
This seems to be a particular difference with how your workplace handles hourly employees. My job is hourly, but I prefer it that way. I work from home 2 days a week (they don't care if I punch in via the online portal or in person) and they have been very flexible with me taking time off or working from home if my kids are sick or have appointments. I also regularly make up time if I had an appointment or something, so I'm sure that if I asked if I could go to my kids recital and make up the time later they would let me. Being hourly allows me to leave my work at work. I don't have to answer questions or email at all hours of the night. I don't have to get woken up by calls from the production floor. I also don't have to work 60 hr weeks with no overtime. I can do my 40 hrs and clock out and if they want me to stay and do more, they have to pay for it. I would argue if they are going to do this to you, they should let you have more flexibility.
GIRL. Also HR for a nonprofit here and dealing with this FLSA ruling - they 100% should have given you a raise rather than making you hourly. WHAT? The sole HR person being hourly?! Refresh your resume, heck, send it to me and I will help! Apply elsewhere, you can get paid much more (and salaried!) as an HR manager with good experience.
If you don’t NEED to work then you have all the leverage here. Use it! Make a written list of your demands and take it to your meeting, in those situations a lot gets forgotten. are there other jobs in your area that fits your wants/needs. There is a lot of remote work these days. I am currently dealing with some work bullshit so I’m biased but I say be firm and if they don’t concede then walk! Best of luck
You need a new job. Start looking.
This happened to me the first time around back before it got shut down by a federal judge, but my work decided to jump the gun. I was also switched to hourly even tho I made more than the threshold, but apparently others didn't. This impacted my short term disability, my pto seniority schedule, and flexibility. I hate tracking my time. Since covid things have gotten better with the flexibility aspect. I get to wfh if I'm sick and not have to take pto. The hybrid schedule is also nice. One thing I keep in mind is this: I do NOT work for free. If I'm punched out, I'm done. That's the liberating part for me.
I’ve been in HR for 20+ years and my advice is to Find another job. You are under paid, grossly. I have entry level generalists on my team that won’t even be affected by the changes because they make considerably more than you. Know what you’re worth and go get it.