question about hourly/salary type stuff (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

if he's just highlighting the fact that it costs him more to pay me than just my salary.

But if he doesn't include that money in your salary, he's still paying you the same amount.

i.e.
$27,600/year salary with the $300/month included in your salary
or
$24,000/year salary + $300/month (for insurance)

The company still has to shell out $27,600/year to you. Most people are VERY unappreciative when it comes to insurance. My company once asked that the employees pay $65/month for insurance (we originally didn't have to pay a thing), but everyone FREAKED out! Saying "I can't believe I now have to pay $65 per Month!!!!", but what they weren't getting was the fact that the company was spending almost $300 per month for each employee.

Talk about unappreciative.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Mark, I think the vast majority of companies state they are paying you the second way mentioned. What Phil was told by his current employer was blatantly wrong. When a company advertises a position or puts forth an offer and says the salary is X, that should equate to what is reported on your W2s. Phil's company said his salary was X, but its really X minus a bunch of stuff that every job offer I've ever received didn't include. What they call salary equates to the total cost of employment which is usually not a concern of the employee. Its not what you put on future job applications, its not what's reported to the IRS, its not what's used for calculating 401k contributions, and its not used for calculating income tax.

In summary, Phil I think you're pretty safe to assume you're getting a good deal from the new company. I doubt they use the misleading way of stating salary like your current employer.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Salary most definitely should not include any employER taxes, and you're right that stuff is not of concern to the employee. It should be the same as reported on the W-2.

I had written several paragraphs but all of a sudden my browser window closed by itself for no reason, so I won't write as much this time. I wanted to reply to this:

Typically, if one is paid on an hourly basis, one must by law be paid overtime when required to work more than the customary number of hours a day or week.

Salaried employees are not required to be paid overtime, so they can end up working 12 hours a day for 8 hours pay.

In most cases this is not true. Salaried employees are entitled to overtime pay, with two major exemptions: executives who are in direct supervision of other people and have hiring/firing authority, and professionals in certain fields such as computer programming, television, perhaps medical, wherever the slavedrivers managed to successfully lobby for the exemption. Also, if your salary has ever been docked because you did not work the regular number of hours, then you're being treated like an hourly employee in that situation and therefore you must be treated like an hourly employee whenever you work more than the regular number of hours, in other words you are entitled to overtime pay. I'll bet there are a lot of companies that could be busted for that.

 

[Philip_G]

movie theaters also fall in that category, I was a projectionist in college and you didn't get overtime..

 

[Colin Dunn]

Philip_G:

Don't accept any job offer under about $40K/yr in the Denver area, unless you are married and working just to provide a "supplemental" income. Denver and its suburbs are an expensive place to live. Not quite Bay Area or East Coast expensive, but getting up there.

Expect to pay over $900 a month for a good 2-bedroom apartment, almost $700 a month for a 1-bedroom. As for houses, you'd be looking at: $250K and up for anything reasonably close and in decent shape.

If you wanted to buy a house, you'd need an income of over $80K per year. In this post-bubble era, that salary is out of reach to most people...

 

[Leila Dougan]

People often think that hourly=non-exempt and salaried=except. However, this is not always the case. Regardless of how they are going to pay you, ask them specifically if your position is exempt or non-exempt and that'll tell you whether you can expect to make any money on OT. I am, unforutnately, stuck in a low paying exempt position. . .I'm in IT and work 60 hrs a week, which works out to about $9/hr :frowning:

 

[Philip_G]

I'll be OK colin. Denver is crashing fast and there are a LOT of half empty apartments willing to give me 3 months free rent + othe incentives.

 

[Jay Heyl]

My employer has also started making a lot of noise about the "total compensation package". Every year they send out a detailed statement showing what they paid you directly and how much additional they spent on your behalf. I think it's just a way to reduce complaints about the amounts we have to pay for some of our own benefits.

No employer is going to advertise that greatly inflated amount as your "salary". Salary is what they pay directly to you, minus taxes and your cost for benefits. I think you're pretty safe in assuming the offered salary is what you'll see as "gross" on your pay stub at the end of the year.

Congratulations on what looks to be a great step up.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Phil, you get a flying job?? I did a cost of living conversion, I picked Fergus Falls which I think is similar to Grand Forks in terms of cost of living and there's a huge steep increase from there to Denver. I think that 15K pay increase is more like 7K when you factor in the cost of living. Just a heads up. Congrats though.

 

[Philip_G]

no, not flying but I'll be working for one of the larger companies in aviation.
I'll try to instruct part time on my weekends to have some fun, I think things will be alright. I found an apartment for 888 a month, a huge 2 bedroom, so with a roommate it'll be fo fo fo a month each, that's manageable.

grand forks isn't really THAT cheap, cars are more here, food is about the same, gas is more here, and I find I mailorder most everything because a lot of stuff I can't get locally.