[imgabe]

Exempt jobs in no way shape or form start at $80k. You can be making $35k and be exempt. It has to do with the nature of the work, not a salary.

You can't be non-exempt and have unpaid overtime. Non-exempt means you are required to be paid overtime for working over 40 hours per week. That's the entire point of the exempt / non-exempt designation. If you're non-exempt and not getting paid overtime, you need to report your employer to the DoL.

Yes, some areas are expensive, those areas also have higher wages. The median wage in that area will be higher than the overall median for the whole country. If you can't afford to live there...live somewhere else. That isn't complicated.

[johnnyanmac]

Okay sure. Your state will vary. California's exempt status requires a certain salary, among several other clauses:

https://www.calchamber.com/california-labor-law/exempt-nonex...

>Exempt employees in California generally must earn a minimum monthly salary of no less than two times the state minimum wage for full time employment.

So as of now that floor would be $34/hr to even be considered.

>Yes, some areas are expensive, those areas also have higher wages

Given federal minimum wage, it's likely to be the other way around. $25/hr in CA may go down to $11 in a low COL. You can see some abysmally low compensations flr jobs that "require" advanced degrees.

>If you can't afford to live there...live somewhere else. That isn't complicated.

Spoken like someone who's never tried to get housing out of state without a job offer. Let alone moving long distance.

[imgabe]

I'm not sure what you want. It's not like $68k is poverty wages. If they don't do the overtime, maybe they only make $50k, which is still above the median personal income ($68k is household income, meaning that is usually with more than one person working). Yeah, you can't live in downtown Manhattan or San Francisco on that, but there's lots of other places you can live just fine, and many many people who live on less. Welding is in demand in lots of places, especially lower cost of living places. It can't be that hard to move. Human beings migrated across Siberia wearing animal skins, surely one can figure out how to apply for a job online and rent a U-Haul.