I just got a promotion last week and they are offering me salary. I know that there are pros and cons. The good thing is that if you average it out for a 40 hour week it is $5 dollars more an hour but I did average about 10 - 15 hours of OT every two weeks. Any helpful statements out there?
Really depends on you. If you like doing the OT and gaining that extra cash then stay with hourly. But if it were me I would go salary look for a part-time job to make extra money. And reap the benefits of salary.. 401,Health,Vacation, etc.
True, I get 16 days vacation a year plus 401 and insurance. It would be nice taking an hour lunch instead of the 20 min and not worrying about losing extra minutes.
When you go hourly the company allways wins. If they didn't win they wouldn't do it. Unless you are very lucky, you will end up working alot more hours than the difference in salary -- it is much easier for them to expect an hourly employee to work longer, and it doesn't cost them anything. That's why they make employees salaried. Unfortunately, whether we are salaried or not is usually not an option -- if you want to move up with a company and make more money you usually will eventually have to go salaried.
Are there extra health (or other) benefits involved that you would get with salary? Those things might be worth it. I'm on salary, but my wife decided to stay on wage given the choice. She does work a lot of overtime, and she makes more on wage. Since we're married, she gets all my benefits from work, so it's worth it for her. Without my benefits, she probably would have taken salary.
The good thing about salary at most companies is, if you work way over 40 hours in one week you can balance it off next week (ie leave early or take a day off). Also, if you have to miss work because of a holiday, family emergency or a playoff game during the day you don't miss out on any pay. Unless you know it is a job that is going to have you working 50+ hours a week everyweek, then I'd go salary. I am in the same boat as you, I am currently hourly but should be salary in the next month or so for about a $5.00 an hour raise... but mine is a no-brainer because I don't have benefits unless I go salary.
as svpernaunt said, it all depends on how they work out the extra hours. When i was salaried, I actually got paid OT. (basically i was an hourly employee labeled under salaried). I got the benefits of both ends. In other departments, if you worked extra hours, then you could take time off the next week. Then there were the people who were expected to work 50 hours a week every week.
Do you mean you have the choice of either hourly or salary with the new job? Never heard of this before. If you mean this is a promotion from an hourly position to a salaried one, tell me more about what you do: the industry, your company and your current and proposed position. In many cases, it's a bad idea to only look at the immediate salary impact. When I made the (permanent) switch from hourly to salary, it was a huge career move in the right direction. Never looked back. The career consideration may be much more important than the immediate take home pay impact.
We sell alot to the oilfield, compressor companies and the rigs. I see it as a step in the right direction, I have been with them for 12 years and have moved my way up slowly but surely. I am going to talk to them tomorrow.
