Exempt Salary - Force to work too much

[td2306]

As exempt salary personels, We have to put in minimum of 50hr/wk but recently my boss forces us to put in a lot more hours, some day we work from 8am - 2am and must report back to work at 7am. We brought it to HR but they said nothing we could do about it. We have to work (free) on saturdays too when company is making money by running production.

Question?:
1. Is there a limit number of hour per day, per week that employer can make us work?

2. Is there a minimum number of rest hours in between that we allow to take?

Thanks,

 

[cbg]

1.) No. In 48 out of 50 states, including Michigan, both exempt and non-exempt employees must work whatever number of hours the employer says. The only difference is that an exempt employee's salary covers all hours worked, no matter how many or how few, whereas a non-exempt employee must be paid for each hour worked but need not be paid for any time s/he does not work. Exempt employees are not working "for free" at any time.

2.) There is neither a minimum nor a maximum. For general employment, no law in any state addresses how many hours off between shifts. There are some industry specific exceptions but they are primarily, if not exclusively, where there is a public safety factor (think airline pilot or truck driver).

Please do not take this as my endorsement of such a policy; it is not intended as such. But in most states (not quite all, but most, and including Michigan) you could be required to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and as long as you were paid appropriately it would be legal. It would be stupid in the extreme, but it would be legal.

FYI, it is very, very common (and very, very legal) for an exempt employee to work 60 or 70 or even more hours a week every week, on a regular basis.