[crazygringo]

> If my company needs me to be available beyond my 9-5 workday, they can pay for it.

If you're salaried then they are paying you for it based on the job requirements, it's part of the job and one of the things that separates hourly employees from salaried ones.

Unless you're talking about the cost of your cell plan or device? But even then, a lot of companies will pay for your plan and subsidize part/all of your device if they have a legitimate work reason to need to contact you and expect a fairly quick response outside the office.

EDIT: To be clear I'm referring to US law/practices. The entire point of salaried as opposed to hourly work is that it is based on performance rather than hours, and it's up to you and your employer to come to agreement on what performance means. At some companies salary might be for 40 hours, at others it's for 60 or 80 regularly. It's your own responsibility to find out before taking the job, and decide for yourself what you're willing to provide or not.

[tharax]

No they are _not_. Salary is for 40 hours a week, +/- 5 hours depending on temporary circumstances.

Salary is not 40 hours working + 128 hours on call per week.

[michaelmior]

This of course depends on your particular employment contract. In some cases, someone may agree to be on call whenever they're not working and AFAIK (IANAL) such contracts are legal in some circumstances.

[kube-system]

That depends on whether or not the employee is FLSA exempt or non-exempt.

[CydeWeys]

Meanwhile, in Europe, they have employee protection laws that outright prevent these practices. If you need someone to be available outside of work hours, you need to pay them extra for it, similar to how overtime is mandated in the US for hourly workers.

Wish we had those laws here. Fortunately I work at a company where I am compensated extra for my oncall shifts that take place outside of normal work hours -- it ends up being a few extra tens of thousands of dollars per year. That should be the mandated standard though, not just for those who are lucky.

[celticmusic]

no.

Salary is a payment schedule, that's it. Anything else requires contractual agreement.

The fact that you think it gives companies the right to demand irregular hours is more about your mindset than reality.

[dancek]

Depends on the jurisdiction. I think there's a clear separation of work time and free time in most of Europe. Here in Finland an employee can never be forced to work over their daily working time (usually 7.5h between 8-5); doing so is always voluntary, though of course pressuring exists. For force majeure circumstances there's the legal concept of emergency work, but that's very rarely invoked.

[djsumdog]

I worked for a University that paid cell phone plan steepens back in 2012. In Illinois, it now required by law for employers to pay cell expensive if they're required for work.