Found this over at Randomize, where Richard cites the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) and has a few things to say about his perception of this act. He has his heart in the right place I think, but I just look at it differently.
The section of the Act at issue here states that Employees in Computer-Related Occupations are exempt from overtime rules and minimum wage if they meet 3 conditions
- The employee must be compensated either on a salary or fee basis of not less than $455 per week or, if compensated on an hourly basis, at a rate not less than $27.63 an hour;
- The employee must be employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer field performing the duties described below;
- The employee's primary duty must consist of:...
And it goes on to list duties that most of us fall into.
Now, as to the first condition, $455 per week comes to about $11.37/hour. Not exactly going to get rich off that, but it's not like you are working at McDonald's either. And if you are a programmer or other similar profession taking a job for $23K then you are either in a bad market for IT, not skilled or experienced enough to command a higher salary, or have absolutely no negotiation skills. If it's the first, move or accept your situation. If it's the second...use that $23K job to enhance your skills and add things to your resume like nobody's business. I started on help-desk and rolled with it from there until I was getting the experience and knowledge equivalent of the salary I thought I deserved, then leveraged that into new jobs. That's how a career works. You have to start somewhere. If it's the third reason...well, I don't know what to tell you. Get your face out of the monitor and learn some basic business skills.
The second one, $27.63 per hour, is pretty well in line with what your average programmer in an average market can expect. Or, if you work in a shithole podunk market like me where you are one of maybe 10 software guys in the whole city, and the need is not that great, then it's a pretty good wage.
I think we can see here that minimum wage, in both cases, is not going to apply anytime soon.
As to overtime...well, that's another matter. I expect that I will work a lot of hours. Most of the programmers I know expect the same. It's different for us than it is from hardware jockeys. But if you read it, the rules for compensation are different from hardware jockeys as well. Then again, I'm sitting here blogging at work, and I pretty much come and go as I please provided I am in the office for the bulk of normal office hours, and that I get my work done. I have a nice laptop that I can play Star Wars: Galaxies on when I need a break. So I weigh that against the long hours. The overtime thing all comes down to the individual situation. If you go into a job knowing you will be working a lot of "overtime", and will be salaried and thus not getting "overtime pay", and you are not okay with that, then don't take the job, or start looking for a new one.
I guess I take a different look at it. I love to write code. I get paid to write code. Do I get paid as much as I'd like? Or as much as I think I'm worth? No. But in my market, the options are limited, and its either this or go flip burgers, so I'll program and not make overtime thank you very much. I've been without a job. I've worked for minimum wage at Barnes & Noble while waiting for a new software job to materialize. It ain't fun. You go into this industry, you better know what you're getting into and fully understand the ramifications of the path you are choosing before you take the plunge. Well, that's my two cents anyway.
Now playing: Pearl Jam - Black