so f*ing angry!!!!!!
Senate Bill 88 and what it could mean to you. mind you, this was passed and enacted in 2000.
what it means to you, if you are in the computer industry and making less than the equivalent of $41/hour, then you are NOT an exempt employee. see, exempt employees are exempt from being paid overtime anytime they work over 40 hours per week. see, most software engineers i know work more than 40 hours/week. but most software engineers i know make more than $41/hour, which is roughly $81,000-85,000 per year, depending on how much time off you get.
see, until june of 2004, i was not an exempt employee, except i never knew that. i never knew that i was entitled to overtime pay. if i play a really conservative game, i would say that i worked, on average, 1 extra hour a day. like i said, it’s a really conservative game i’m playing. for the year 2000, i believe i am owed $14,625. for the year 2001-2004, i am owed $15,234 PER YEAR. this brings me to wages earned, but not paid, over four years of $60,327, IF i only worked one extra hour a day, on average.
i am so, so, SO mad. it’s not like i didn’t know they were underpaying me. but it’s different to know that i actually legally already worked and earned a certain amount, but was robbed of it.
eta: that “$41/hour” rate is adjusted every october 1st, and goes into effect the following january 1st. the new rate starting on january 1, 2004, was $44.63. my estimates above are based on the lower rate. also, if you work over 12 hours in one day, you are supposed to get paid two times your regular rate. there were at least a few times i worked between 16 hours and 20 hours a day. that means that there were days when my day’s pay should have exceeded $1000. haha. i laugh. i laugh bitterly. when i’m worrying about my mom’s health care and paying for my little brother’s college, i will be even more angry than i am now.
Where did you find information about the current wage cap? The thing is, there is no way any small company would hold to these laws, ever. Which sucks, but their whole business model depends on squeezing 1.5 to 2 people’s worth of work out of every individual.
h
There are links here: http://www.dir.ca.gov/IWC/WageOrderIndustries.htm
Sure, I know they don’t hold to it. But it doesn’t mean it’s not in violation.
i also wonder, just to be pessimistic, if this is the only applicable law. (that is, are there other laws that supercede parts of it, or court rulings that reinterpret it).
i feel like i’ve seen this law come up a few times on slashdot in the past few years and people argue back and forth about software engineer unions and paid overtime and some people say that because computer programmers are “professionals” the overtime laws don’t apply. (my understanding is that if you are a “professional” you are exempt, regardless of salary. the question is what counts as “professional”).
But Bill 88 seems pretty clear…
i wonder if anyone has successfully claimed overtime under this?
-max
We’ll find out relatively soon, I think. There’s a class-action suit pending against EA exactly on this issue.
It’s really weird. I mean, I don’t know *anyone* who knew about that, until now.
I wonder what one can do (and I’m talking about me, I suppose, since I’m still paid less than the cutoff) to actually enforce those rules? Particularly given that I’m guaranteed a substantial amount of overtime in the next project, without a doubt.