"Absurdly low" is extremely strong language for 27$ an hour. Privileged be the developer, I guess.
$27/hour comes to about $56,160 a year
According to HUD [0], that qualifies and individual as "very low income" in San Francisco, CA (threshhold $65,250)
For California overall, you would merely be "low income" (threshhold $56,450)
In Houston Texas, that would be "low income" for a family of 2. (Threshhold 56,700)
It might not be fun to live on, granted, but if more than 50% of the data points are lower, it's probably not reasonably described as "low".
"Absurdly low to be considered exempt"? That's not "privilege of the developer", that's "we shouldn't screw over employees who aren't getting adequately compensated.
This is one of those things that hasn't been updated in a long time. The original law was https://www.congress.gov/101/statute/STATUTE-104/STATUTE-104... from 1990:
> Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall promulgate regulations that permit computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, and other similarly skilled professional workers as defined in such regulations to qualify as exempt executive, administrative, or professional employees under section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(1)). Such regulations shall provide that if such employees are paid on an hourly basis they shall be exempt only if their hourly rate of pay is at least 6 1/2 times greater than the applicable minimum wage rate under section 6 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 206).
(note, there may be transcription errors above)
The federal minimum wage in 1990 was $3.80. In 1996, this value was frozen at $27.63 which was 6.5x the federal minimum wage of $4.25 at that time.
If it was not frozen, that value would be $47.13 today.
Factor that by ten and I’ll consider taking salary. My personal time is nearly priceless and anyone giving theirs away for 684/wk needs to learn about our forefathers that died to earn us overtime.
They want 7 days of sick time per year. Sure, they get decent overtime, but if they get sick and miss a few shifts, or can’t get to their site within an hour of their call in 24/7/365, or have literally any life events then that money dries up real quick.
We shouldn’t have to demand reasonable working conditions but here we are. A proletarian being mocked by an anonymous green named capitalist belittling the severity of abuse salaried workers endure.
Slap a managerial title on someone, pay them a pittance and keep them around just as long as they’re profitable. Once they’re not toss them and laugh while they try to collect the absolutely gutted social services.