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Comment by UncleEntity | Hacker News Reader

Chances are the slack will be taken up by people on a salary so they won't get anything extra pay wise -- managers and whatnots.

Or they cut the service level so maybe the table will be wiped down before you sit there and maybe the garbage will be taken out before it gets so full you can't throw stuff in there.

But the most likely scenario (which I witnessed the last time they raised the minimum wage in the AZ) is they just raise the prices on everything storewide. Well, that and reduced "amenities" like mopped floors and clean parking lots.

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> Or they cut the service level so maybe the table will be wiped down before you sit there and maybe the garbage will be taken out before it gets so full you can't throw stuff in there.

Anecdotally, this seems like a common route for businesses to take. I was shocked moving from the Midwest to the Bay Area at the low cleanliness of tables at fast food and fast casual restaurants. Prices aren't as much higher as I expected them to be, but a dirty table at a restaurant was basically unheard of where I came from, and it's expected in San Jose.

So you have 10 salaried employees and 1 hourly?

Also most salaried jobs have hours written into the contract, so you can’t make a salaried person worked longer just because your business is poorly run.

I'm not sure what country you're referring to, but in the US salaries employees explicitly do not have hours written into their employment agreements. If there are hours written in, they are legally classified as hourly employees and legally eligible for things like overtime. Lots of companies have run afoul of this but the courts have been very clear on the matter. If you treat your employees as hourly employees they are hourly employees, and you better track and award overtime according to hourly regulations.

If you are a salaried (paid per unit of time other than hourly) employee but not exempt (from overtime) then you still need to record your hours. For example, inside retails sales positions allow for overtime exemption, however in order to determine if they are exempt you need to determine their hourly wage. The only way to determine thier hourly wage is to know how many hours they work. So these salaried employees need to record their hours.

To add to this, in the US the Fair Labor Standards Act governs topics like minimum wage and overtime, and it provides a number of exemption criteria [1] for managerial, professional, creative, and computer employees. Most employers take advantage of these exemptions for qualifying jobs, and classify these jobs as 'exempt' from FLSA rules about wages and overtime. Therefore, most US professionals, managers, and computer programmers are not paid according to hours worked [2], but given a fixed salary, and their job description avoids mentioning an expectation about hours worked.

[1] https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17a_overview.htm [2] https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/whats-the-diff...

Except I'd be fired if I decided I didn't feel like working 40 hours a week every single week without taking paid time off. Hours are tracked for full time salaried employees, of course, that's been the case for literally every single job I worked. (And I'm no spring chicken)

If it worked the way you claim, then what would prevent me from working 2 hours a week and be like "lol, I'm salaried, pay me a full time salary for those two hours?"

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-...

>The Department of Labor (DOL) states in the 2004 overtime exemptions preamble to the final regulations that employers may require exempt employees to record and track hours and to work a specified schedule: “We agree that employers, without affecting their employees’ exempt status, may take deductions from accrued leave accounts; may require exempt employees to record and track hours; may require exempt employees to work a specified schedule; and may implement across-the-board changes in schedule under certain circumstances.”

"Exempt" employment status largely works against the employee in practice.

I had a salaried job a long time ago and there were no hours written into my contract. Ended up working mon-fri and every third saturday up until my boss quit and I had to take over all his responsibilities with no increase in pay since I was, wait for it...a salaried employee. Didn't last more than a week or two under those conditions.

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