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The FOIA is a federal law, applicable to federal agencies. State and local governments are not subject to the law.

Not quite precise (see 29CFR541. In practice, it depends on which (tax/employment) flavor of contracting you do. If you do 1099 contracting, no, you probably won't get overtime by default, but you can certainly negotiate your own rates. I do w-2 contracting, which means my agency's income is contingent on my hourly rate, so damned if they're not going to specify time-n-a-half, and double-time -- it's their income which doubles too :) -- and it makes them competitive in attracting talent.

Depending on where you work, this could actually be illegal. Generally, it is illegal to have an employee work more than 40hrs/week without overtime compensation (set at 1.5x hrly), unless they are managers (defined as managing one or more people).

Of course, IANAL, and I'm a bit vague on all the rules behind this, but I'm pretty sure that they would have to pay you resonable compensation for the work you've done....

From Department of Labor -- Overtime Pay Requirements Of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):

"... employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. ... Earnings may be determined on a piece-rate, salary, commission, or some other basis, but in all such cases the overtime pay due must be computed on the basis of the average hourly rate derived from such earnings. ... Overtime Pay May Not Be Waived: The overtime requirement may not be waived by agreement between the employer and employees."

HTH,

Chris.

According to Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, essentially no salaried computer programmer or related technical worker is entitled to overtime:

29 CFR 541.3 - Professional. The term employee employed in a bona fide * * * professional capacity in section 13(a)(1) of the Act shall mean any employee: (a) Whose primary duty consists of the performance of: [... snipping other fields...] (4) Work that requires theoretical and practical application of highly-specialized knowledge in computer systems analysis, programming, and software engineering, and who is employed and engaged in these activities as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer software field, as provided in Sec. 541.303; and (b) Whose work requires the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance; and (c) Whose work is predominantly intellectual and varied in character (as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work) and is of such character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time; and (d) Who does not devote more than 20 percent of his hours worked in the workweek to activities which are not an essential part of and necessarily incident to the work described in paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section; and (e) Who is compensated for services on a salary or fee basis at a rate of not less than $170 per week ($150 per week, if employed by other than the Federal Government in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or American Samoa), exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities: Provided, That this paragraph shall not apply in the case of an employee who is the holder of a valid license or certificate permitting the practice of law or medicine or any of their branches and who is actually engaged in the practice thereof, nor in the case of an employee who is the holder of the requisite academic degree for the general practice of medicine and is engaged in an internship or resident program pursuant to the practice of medicine or any of its branches, nor in the case of an employee employed and engaged as a teacher as provided in paragraph (a)(3) of this section: Provided further, That an employee who is compensated on a salary or fee basis at a rate of not less than $250 per week (or $200 per week, if employed by other than the Federal Government in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or American Samoa), exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities, and whose primary duty consists of the performance either of work described in paragraph (a) (1), (3), or (4) of this section, which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, or of work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, shall be deemed to meet all of the requirements of this section: Provided further, That the salary or fee requirements of this paragraph shall not apply to an employee engaged in computer-related work within the scope of paragraph (a)(4) of this section and who is compensated on an hourly basis at a rate in excess of 6\1/2\ times the minimum wage provided by section 6 of the Act. [38 FR 11390, May 7, 1973, as amended at 40 FR 7092, Feb. 19, 1975; 57 FR 46744, Oct. 9, 1992]

The definitions of an exempt employee in the software field are fairly specific. See some leagalese here.

Another point, the exemption is only from minimum wage and overtime regulations. Definitely not "most labor laws".

Certain types of farm setups are exempt. Perhaps the number of sheep subscribing to AOL could get them certified as a farming operation.

Fishing operations are exempt. With all the trolling of AOLers, ditto.

Casual babysitters and people who care for the infirm are also exempt. See what I'm getting at?

If it is not legal for a company to categorize an employee as exempt unless they are "in management or do work involving significant creativity and indepenence" then I'd sure love it if someone could post a URL or some other reference to the law that spells this out.

The relevant law is the Fair Labor Standards Act. Unfortunately, it appears that they included a big fat exception specifically for computer workers. Otherwise, you might find this document interesting. It mentions four classes of exempt employees: Executive, Administrative, Professional, and Outside Sales. For most of the people on Slashdot, the following definition about which professionals qualify for exemption is the most interesting:

Professional Exemption

Applicable to employees who perform work requiring advanced knowledge and education, work in an artistic field which is original and creative, work as a teacher, or work as a computer system analyst, programmer, software engineer, or similarly skilled worker in the computer software field; who regularly exercise discretion and judgment; who perform work which is intellectual and varied in character, the accomplishment of which cannot be standardized as to time; who receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption (except doctors, lawyers, teachers and certain computer occupations); and who do not devote more than 20% of their time to work other than that described above.

The salary mentioned above means that:

Subject to certain exceptions set forth in the regulations, in order to be considered "salaried", employees must receive their full salary for any workweek in which they perform any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked. This rule applies to each exemption that has a salary requirement (outside sales employees, and certain licensed or certified doctors, lawyers and teachers have no salary requirement. For certain computer-related occupations under the professional exemption, they need not be paid a salary if they are paid on an hourly basis at a rate not less than $27.63 per hour). The special requirements which apply to each category of employees are summarized below.

The part about being paid in full for any week in which you work, regardless of the number of hours actually worked, is probably the most important thing here. IOW, if your employer can dock your pay for working part days (or apparently even part weeks!) you are not an exempt employee, unless you're an outside salesperson, doctor, lawyer, or teacher or a computer specialist paid hourly and earning at least $27.63 per hour.

The big thing is that if you really want to know your rights as an employee, you should really take a careful look at the Department of Labor web site.

If it is not legal for a company to categorize an employee as exempt unless they are "in management or do work involving significant creativity and indepenence" then I'd sure love it if someone could post a URL or some other reference to the law that spells this out.

The relevant law is the Fair Labor Standards Act. Unfortunately, it appears that they included a big fat exception specifically for computer workers. Otherwise, you might find this document interesting. It mentions four classes of exempt employees: Executive, Administrative, Professional, and Outside Sales. For most of the people on Slashdot, the following definition about which professionals qualify for exemption is the most interesting:

Professional Exemption

Applicable to employees who perform work requiring advanced knowledge and education, work in an artistic field which is original and creative, work as a teacher, or work as a computer system analyst, programmer, software engineer, or similarly skilled worker in the computer software field; who regularly exercise discretion and judgment; who perform work which is intellectual and varied in character, the accomplishment of which cannot be standardized as to time; who receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption (except doctors, lawyers, teachers and certain computer occupations); and who do not devote more than 20% of their time to work other than that described above.

The salary mentioned above means that:

Subject to certain exceptions set forth in the regulations, in order to be considered "salaried", employees must receive their full salary for any workweek in which they perform any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked. This rule applies to each exemption that has a salary requirement (outside sales employees, and certain licensed or certified doctors, lawyers and teachers have no salary requirement. For certain computer-related occupations under the professional exemption, they need not be paid a salary if they are paid on an hourly basis at a rate not less than $27.63 per hour). The special requirements which apply to each category of employees are summarized below.

The part about being paid in full for any week in which you work, regardless of the number of hours actually worked, is probably the most important thing here. IOW, if your employer can dock your pay for working part days (or apparently even part weeks!) you are not an exempt employee, unless you're an outside salesperson, doctor, lawyer, or teacher or a computer specialist paid hourly and earning at least $27.63 per hour.

The big thing is that if you really want to know your rights as an employee, you should really take a careful look at the Department of Labor web site.

Actually he's correct. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act working more than 40 hours in a week entitles you to overtime pay (pay and a half). Salaried workers are also entitled to overtime, to quote from a Dept. of Labor fact sheet:

Salary for Workweek Exceeding 40 Hours: A fixed salary for a regular workweek longer than 40 hours does not discharge FLSA statutory obligations. For example, an employee may be hired to work a 45 hour workweek for a weekly salary of $300. In this instance the regular rate is obtained by dividing the $300 straight-time salary by 45 hours, resulting in a regular rate of $6.67. The employee is then due additional overtime computed by multiplying the 5 overtime hours by one-half the regular rate of pay ($3.335 x 5 = $16.68).

So assuming your salary is based on 40 hours a week, as most are, monthly salary / (40 hour a week days * 4 weeks a month) will do nicely for purposes of computing an approximate hourly rate.

drewish

They won.

That was until the IRS brought it to the Supreme Court where they declared such information as exempt of the FOIA

Here's another example of the FOIA being denied. It has to do with a request of "all documentation and research materials used or developed by NIST during its selection of a proposed digital signature standard" being denied.

"[Herman] said an advisory drafted by departmental officials was informal and was not intended to be taken as a statement of policy for the entire business community. [...]

Herman said, however, that the controversy has raised important questions about what protections Americans who work at home can expect from the government. She said she will convene a conference of business and labor leaders and set up an interagency task force to conduct a wide-ranging study of the issue."

So yes, this will be revisited -- with ample media attention no doubt. No, its not a disaster -- any more than the idea that employers may have some responsibilities for home office conditions is a disaster. It is the start of a broad discussion of a previously unexplored issue that is very relevant to those of us that telecom mute.

I couldn't find the contorversial letter in a quick scan of the Labor Department and OSHA sites. I suppose its been removed. Does anyone have a URL for it? I would have expected to find it here but its a gonner.