I'm being bumped to "Non-Exempt" status... (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I'm an IT *cough* professional, and was previously catagorized as a salaried employee with "Exempt with Premium Pay" which meant any over-time I work I was paid straight time by my 'hourly salary rate". Now I'm being moved to "Non-Exempt" which means I get my normal salary and am paid 1.5 for overtime hours worked, but it seems my Short-Term Disability (STD) coverage goes down the toilet (but I can elect to buy supplemental STD). Is there any other downsides becoming an "Non-Exempt" IT professional?

 

[Kevin T]

i am "non-exempt status" where i work but it's not it. i think it's a way to screw ppl out of having to pay overtime. i imagine you made decent overtime in your field so you're probably getting the shaft in return for "more time off" if you can find the time to use it. of course, where i work there is no "exempt with premium pay" only "exempt" and "non-exempt" so overtime is either earned straight or earned at 1.5. can't comment on the std issue but it seems to me you're getting dicked. hopefully this isn't the case.

kevin t

EDIT:

it seems your "non-exempt" status will still receive pay for overtime. at my work...if i work 42 hours...the 2 hours overtime will get me 3 hours of "comp time" or time off of work to use when i want. there is no overtime pay. on second thought...you may not be getting dicked. i guess it all depends on how much std costs but i would wonder how necessary that coverage really is.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I am a "non-exempt" employee, meaning that I get overtime. The laws governing "exempt/non-exempt" status are very confusing. It boils down to one's job description and actual duties. I don't think that a company can just decide to switch you from one to the other unless your duties have changed. From what I understand, most IT, administrative, professional (lawyer, doctor...), and managerial positions are exempt from overtime pay. You exempt/non-exempt status should not affect your benefits, as you are still a full-time employee. I would check with your payroll or HR department.

-Chris

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I've been an analyst/programmer, usually a team leader, and sometimes a project manager in this field for 13 years.
And the whole time I would have killed for non-exempt status, so I can get paid for overtime. Consider yourself lucky! If you work typical IT hours, you'll earn enough to pay for your own disability insurance and then some!

 

[JasenP]

Yep work overtime and get paid for it! I am now non-exempt and I work less hours (but I get paid for the ones I do work) and I make almost as much as I was making in my exempt status.

In all fairness I took a big time career change from HR to A/V tech.

IIRC: STD is rather inexpensive if you get it through your place of employment.

 

[Jay H]

HA! Comp time, what a concept. I think I'm a non-exempt software eng. and don't get paid OT so I don't work OT either. (I can do these things, fortunately) before we had a policy that you had to work more than 4 hours of OT per week to even get considered OT pay unless you were on some special list. Then since we work special hours to get every other friday off (9 hour days, 4 days a week, alternating friday's off), once the company tried to dock me 2 hours of OT pay (which is not even peanuts to them) and went about it in such a fashion as to be a complete d*ck about it, pissed me off such that I will not work one minute of overtime anymore. At 4:30pm, I'm outta here. What kind of company is going to go head over heals not to pay somebody for 2 lousy hours of straight time OT???? Is it that important to piss somebody off for that pitance? Anyway, we never get comp time, except unofficial comp time.. but that's another story...

Jay

 

[Patrick Sun]

The reason for the switch is because we merged with a few companies, and my department was shuffled to one of the new companies who only do "Exempt" or "Non-Exempt". At my pre-merge company, we got "Exempt with Premium Pay" (EPP) which means any overtime is paid as straight time, but the STD is covered (getting full pay for 13 weeks of STD, vs. getting a set amount and then having to supplement the coverage with a "Non-Exempt" classification).
So, I guess it's good that I'll get OT paid at 1.5x, but I'm guessing having to supplement STD will eat into any of the OT hours I earn.
Anyhow, I guess I just wanted some assurance that I wasn't getting bent over backwards on the transition.

 

[Michael*K]

I like my non-exempt status. I work as an IS tech at a law firm and if I have to stay late, I like knowing I'm being compensated for it. I often hear the salaried employees grousing about their vacation time. Though they get unlimited sick days, they only have a set amount of vacation time. I on the other hand accrue time off from month to month (in my case 2.5 days a month) and I'm free to use the days as I please, either as vacation time or if I need to take a day off when sick. This works out well if you don't get sick very often and I don't. As someone stated previously, increasing my ST disability coverage through work is not that expensive.

 

[Keith Outhouse]

Jay H,

Does your company's name start with L?