I asked my boss how many hours/week we're required to work, is that wrong? I'm on salary.?

• I'm not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer, I don't have a glamorous job. My job pays average. I asked my boss around 4-5 months ago for a raise, and he declined it in a rude way. Fine. I continued doing my work. I understand the economic situation and that more hours were coming, and that's fine. However, my expected hours and availability have seemed to increase too much for what I'm getting paid. I work from home. From 8:00-5:30, I work. I eat at my desk, so I literally work 9 1/2 hours/day. I figure I'm working an extra 1.5 hours/day. However, once my boss decided to decline my raise, I made sure that I stopped answering e-mails/phone calls on the weekends (as I used to) and late at night (as I used to). It wasn't healthy, but I'll admit, I did it to help the company. Well my boss said today he noticed I wasn't answering any e-mails after 5:30ish and never on the weekends anymore, and I said that's correct, I haven't been. He asked why, and I said well because I'm off on the weekend, and I don't work until 9:00pm. He said well sometimes our work requires us to work extra hours. I explained to him that I work 47.5 hours/week, 7.5 more than the 40 hour week already. He began to get snippy, so I go "boss, you tell me, how many hours/week would you like me to work, because I need to know what is expected of me." I didn't say it with a tone either. He said "I need you to work as many hours/week as will get the job done." He then said "if the amount of hours/week you work is a problem, then maybe this job isn't for you." I said maybe you're right. He requested that I meet with the CEO tomorrow. I said great. Am I wrong here?

• Answer:

  If you're not an exempt employee, you get paid overtime. From the sounds of it, you're not exempt. To be exempt, you need to have special skills, such as an engineer, or to be a supervisor or manager. You say you're job isn't glamorous. By this you sound like it's nothing special. You need to be responsible for a certain number of employees to be considered a supervisor. To repeat, you can be salaried, but you still deserve overtime if you're not exempt. I worked salaried jobs for most of my life and still got overtime pay whenever I went over 40 hours a week. I also got paid for being "on call", such as answering pages after hours. You do need to talk to the CEO, but first call your state bureau of labor and industries or your state attorney general. Explain the situation to them. I'm sure you'll find you have more than ample justification to claim back pay for the overtime.