Hacker News Reader

Comment by jobeyonekenobi | Hacker News Reader

I posted this in the other thread about his hours:

Being a manager and accutely aware of legal ramifications of hours worked (boring I know), does anyone have any insight into whether there is something in the US akin to the European Worktime Directive? Over here (UK, but the E.U as a whole) the average working week is 40 hours by law, and the worker must opt in to be eligble to work upto a maximum of 70 hours per week. As well as this 70 hour maximum, 11 hours must be taken between end of work one day and start of work the next, and an entire 24 hour period of non-work must be taken once every 7 days, or alternativley a period of 48 hours of non-work must be taken in a 14 day period.

Any comments?

View on HN

The U.S. has nothing like that for salaried employees.

IANAL, but I believe the law is slightly more nuanced than that:

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/wages-overtime-pay.htm

Overtime doesn't apply to a number of class of workers (including executive, administration, professional, outside sales, and computer related workers).

And I believe you could read "professional" as "anyone with a college degree working a white-collar job".

Having said that, you're essentially correct...

I believe "professional" effectively means "salaried". Salaried employees generally don't get overtime.

Details are in a page linked from the parent (see Learned Professional Exemption):

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17d_profess...

If you're a learned professional (matching all of the three criteria on the page - one of which is salaried), artist/creative, teacher, law/medicine practioner, or are highly compensated (making > $100,000/year) overtime doesn't apply to you.

At least, that's what I got out of the page.

The definition of Overtime is actually getting paid, yes? The law I am referring to over in the E.U is actually working, full stop - paid or not. I am at a position where I am not paid any overtime - I'm still not allowed to be present at work for more than 70 hours a week. Does nothing like this exist in the U.S? As in, you could technically work 168 hours with no legal ramifications?

From the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/

> There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek.

So, disregarding overtime, yes: you could technically work 168 hours a week with no legal ramifications.

Deleted comment

[citation needed]

Generally not. There are some rules for people who work on an hourly basis, but I think those vary by state. For some jobs there are also safety regulations. E.g., airline pilots and truck drivers. And many union contracts have substantial restrictions.

I think here we rely more on a liquid labor market than on government regulation to encourage sane working conditions. Which definitely has its drawbacks, but has the upside of not indulging the "lump of labor" fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy

Over here (UK, but the E.U as a whole) the average working week is 40 hours by law, and the worker must opt in to be eligble to work upto a maximum of 70 hours per week

I believe the EU Working Time Directive mandates 48hr maximum working week. The UK was given an excemption to allow employees to 'opt out' of the law. Other EU countries do not have a legal opt out. Some countries (e.g. France) have a lower 'maximum hours per week'.

> Over here (UK, but the E.U as a whole) the average working week is 40 hours by law, and the worker must opt in to be eligble to work upto a maximum of 70 hours per week.

In Ireland, you can't even opt into a 70 hour week; it's flat-out illegal (though there is a system where you can do 96 hours per 14 days, or something, without necessarily equal allocation).

Replying to this quite late:

(http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHour...)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com