Overtime compensation

I've worked for my current employer for over 3 years now, full-time, with an annual-based salary. At my employer, salary-based employees are not entitled to any overtime compensation. However, the employees who were hired under a temp agency ARE entitled to overtime, since they are hourly-based. Full-time and temporary workers work the same amount of hours, overtime included. However, the full-time workers have more responsibility and are the project managers.

Because most of our staff is now temporary workers, the company wanted to increase temp salaries, to keep them on board. (We spend a lot of vested time training these people, to have them leave once finding a "real" job. Why the company just doesn't hire more full-time employees is a completely other subject.)

I was part of the discussion about the salary increase, when I learned that some of the workers would be making more money than me, plus continue to receive overtime pay. I questioned why I was not entitled to a salary increase, as I had put in just as much effort and labor and also was their supervisor (and also doing work for them to compensate for their lack of motivation or experience). I was told that there was a "freeze" on full-time employees to not receive any salary increases. There was nothing my manager could do for me.

I asked him if I could quit as a full-time employee and be hired as a temporary worker. My manager told me that it was not allowed for a full-time to be hired as a temporary worker. My only options are to continue in my position and work the ungodly overtime hours without compensation OR quit and get another job.

I've vested 3 years in this company and feel very discouraged. Do I have a legal case??

Raises are typically discretionary unless posted differently in a corporate employee manual. If all of the statements from your manager can also be found within that manual or other written policy, it is what it is. It's also a pretty safe bet your employer's working well within your state's law when it comes to structuring the part time vs full time but again, you'd need to check that against your particular company's internal procedure. If you don't have an employee manual, ask your manager for a copy of the policy he/she is quoting from and then compare that against your state's law requirements.

Sorry, but I think it's pretty obvious what's going on there. In the long run, it's cheaper to pay part time employees on a contractual & hourly basis for a few months than to raise income on full time salaried employees. (Contractual part time employees seldom have paid insurance or other benefits.) The fact there's a "freeze" on full time employee increases should've alerted you to that one. It appears to me this standard business practice and unless you can find documents that say otherwise, appears consistent with standard state employment/labor laws. You may want to confirm this with your state's labor board or an employment attorney in your area.

Just a suggestion here .. if you ever become aware of another employee's pay information, keep it to yourself. It's not "good business" to complain to anyone that you're being paid less. That kind of discussion is neither professional or acceptable in the workplace (regardless of how well you get along with your manager) and I wouldn't recommend you mention that one at work any more than you already have. Again, check your company policy .. in some places, that alone can be grounds for termination. It's up for you to decide whether or not you can continue working with that type of situation. Personally, I think I'd at least explore other employment opportunities/situations. You already know what "the going rate" is.

Good luck.

This is an informative article dealing with overtime: Wages and Overtime Pay Lawyers