If dh or you are a salaried employee how many hours a week do you work?

[Tap]

I was talking with a friend who works 35-37 hours a week as a salaried employee. Due to schedule changes he now has to work 40. He is very, very unhappy because he says that most salaried employees don't work 40 hours.

 

I think that maybe true for his industry (pharmacy) but not for most. I think that most salaried employees work 40+ and in some cases 40+++ hours a week.

 

What is your experience? Please include all hours worked, not just at the job site. Phone calls after hours, meeting prep the night before etc.

 

You can answer multiple times if you have multiple experiences, but please answer for jobs in the past 5-10 years or so.

[abbeyej]

At dh's old job, 60-80 hours was standard, and there were a few weeks that were more (like, I packed up the kids and took him a toothbrush and change of clothes more!)... A 60 hour week was a good one. sigh.

 

Now he's a professor, so his technical hours on campus are much, much less -- though he spends a great deal of time writing, doing research, programming, doing interviews... I wouldn't really know how to count those hours up.

[FourOaks]

My dh has been a retail manager for almost 22 years and his work weeks are well over 40 --- usually over 50 hours per week. Sometimes he has had to work 60-80 hrs a week (more times than I'd like to recall). Nowadays, praise God, he is averaging usually about 50 hrs per week or a bit less.

[Tree House Academy]

Dh is a Engineering manager and he works anywhere from 45-60 hours on any given week. Just depends mostly on what is going on...

 

If I add in his travel time to and from work as well as his travel for the company on Saturdays, Sundays, etc. and his time spent in meetings when he travels or on conference calls during that travel, we could really get up there in the 80 or so hour per week range at times.

Edited May 6, 2009 by Tree House Academy

[kaylk in tx]

40/week is standard (actually 80hrs over 2 weeks)

anything over that has to be approved by the customer and it's paid his hourly rate. actually all hours are billed to the customer but overtime has to be specifically approved by the project manager.

 

before that he worked as a heat transfer engineer at a manufacturer and he was expected to put in the hours necessary to get the work done whether it took 40 or more per week. No overtime.

[KatieJ]

Hubby has been a salaried Engineer in a food plant for almost 20 years. He now works 5 nine hour days and sometimes a Saturday. 50 hour weeks are quite common and that is way less than he used to work when he managed the maintenance staff too.

[Melinda]

DH is a cartographer with a 90 minute (each way) commute. He leaves here at 7 in the morning, returns between 7 and 8 in the evening, and takes every other Friday off.

[joannqn]

I voted based on a job DH used to have. We'd get into fights about how much he was working. My husband felt that he had to get the job done no matter how long it took. I felt that the employer was taking advantage of calling his employees "salaried" rather than hiring an adequate number of employees to do the job.

 

My husband often arrived at work 1-2 hours before anyone else, including the boss. He often worked 1-3 hours late. He would even work Saturdays and Sundays sometimes, despite no one else working on weekends. Of course, none of these extra hours were paid.

 

It finally came to a head when my husband worked over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend, preventing us from being able to have Thanksgiving with family, while the rest of the company (boss included) enjoyed the holiday. The boss refused to let him have Monday off to spend time with the family, saying he was salaried so the holiday work was part of the job. So with my blessing he went in, got his stuff, and quit.

[sassenach]

As a salaried employee, I don't think dh has ever worked less than 60 hours a week. Often it was more like 80. This was in a high level corporate job. Your friend sounds spoiled.

[elegantlion]

I used to work in the insurance industry. The salaried employees there never worked less than 40. They had to travel and they rotated Saturday shifts. 40hrs would have been a break. I always assumed salaried meant you WOULD work more than 40.

[KidsHappen]

It really all depends. I worked in retail as a salaried employeed and I always work 40+ hours, somtimes as much as 70 -80. This is extreme though. Retail is hard. My hubby has also always worked as a salaried employee and he works anywhere between say 35 and 60 hours depending on the job. Sometimes the 60 hours may include 36 hours straight. It just depends on the job. I think that many salaried workers are able to get away with less thatn 40 hours per weeks but generally they are expected to at least 40 hours per week. Should it ever come down to letting someone go, I know that they always let go the person who works less hours over the person who works more, all else being equal.

 

Edited to add: I didn;t include hubby's travel time which is 6-8 on Sun and Thurs. depending on where he is flying.

Edited May 6, 2009 by KidsHappen

[lynn]

40+ but he does get paid OT either in pay or PTO

[lynn]

40+ but dh gets OT in either time and 1/2 or pto(personal time off whichis above the normal 20days). We usually choose pto. We enjoy the time together more than the money.

[Prudent]

When I worked, I was a salaried employee and worked 50 hours per week.

 

Hubby, salaried employee, has always been 55-60 hours per week.

[Mad Jenny Flint]

if you count all the hours dh works from home. I read your post after responding to the poll.

 

I think your friend lives on a different planet than we do. But my dh is in advertising, which is a completely different world. Many ad agencies expect many more hours than dh works.

[The Girls' Mom]

My dh is salaried. He is expected to put in a MINIMUM of 40 hrs. When he's home, he's 'clocked in' for around 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. When he's traveling, he can put in much, much more time.

[Laura Corin]

Husband works roughly 8am to 7pm, five days a week. He gets five weeks of holiday though - not too unusual in Europe.

 

Laura

[mazakaal]

When dh was a retail store manager he worked 45-55 hours per week, so that's how he voted. He's now in the ministry, and I wouldn't really be able to count how many hours he works. Some weeks he takes a couple of days off to do lawn work around the house and maybe only works 30 hours. Most weeks he has days where spends hours on the phone and computer well into the evening (like past midnight). Those weeks he's probably working 60ish hours per week.

[Carrie12345]

There are days when dh leaves the house at 6am and is already on a business call, only to return at 9pm with the phone still ringing or on his ear. Other days, he might take a 15 minute phone call and do an hour of paperwork.

 

If we're counting off-hour phone calls and paperwork, I'd say he probably averages 55-60 hour weeks. If we're only counting time out of the house, maybe closer to 40-45.

 

I don't really see how a business would benefit by giving a salary to a person who works 40 hours or less. It would make more sense to pay an hourly wage and save money when fewer hours are worked. It's when you go over 40 hours that it begins to cost a company in overtime, which is why they typically move to salaried pay.

[HSMom2One]

I work one day a week teaching 5 separate classes at a private school. I don't mind being salaried, as the compensation is adequate. It works out well for us because I make the same amount of money in one day as I made in three working days per week at my previous office job.

 

My salary covers actual teaching time in the classroom, but I also put in some prep time off hours depending on each project.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

Edited May 7, 2009 by HSMom2One

[Wendi]

My dh has been a salaried employee in a number of companies; he has never worked less than 40 hours. Generally, the expectation seems to be working 40 hours minimum; if there are weeks when it takes longer to get the job done, you work longer. But never less than 40.

 

In his current position, he works around 43 hours a week typically; more like 53 when he's got a deadline. Occasionally more than that.

 

Wendi

[mom31257]

My dh is a public high school teacher, so a little over 40 hours a week. He has to be there by 7:45 and has to stay until 3:45, but he's usually not home until between 4:30 and 5:00. Our schools are on a modified year-round schedule, so they get 6 full weeks off during the school year (fall, Thanksgiving, 2 at Christmas, winter and spring breaks) plus about 7 weeks in the summer. We love all the time off with him.

[Miss Peregrine]

My DH works 36 hours/week. But they are packed into 3-12hour days.

[Kelli in TN]

My husband works 40 for the most part.

 

 

He does have to carry a cell phone that beeps every bleeping time somebody steps a bleeping foot outside of their bleeping electronic monitoring range even in the middle of the bleeping night. Not that I mind that or anything.;)

 

If he gets a backlog of cases or has a heavy court schedule or a jury that just. can't. make. a. decision. he works over.

 

But really, not that often, it's mostly 40 hrs.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Dh is a civil engineering manager. He is technically supposed to work 37 hours per week (they include lunch in the official 8 hour day.) However, he leaves the house at 7 am and comes home around 5:30 or 6. His commute is 25 minutes, so I'd have to say he puts in 9 - 10 hour days. When he was at an engineering firm, he was paid hourly, so he earned overtime. However, they would "churn" hours - wasting hours to use up the contract and then have him work 16 hour days at the end to finish a project. Of course, we never knew when those 16 hour days would be (the whim of his boss) so it was hard to plan around them.

 

When I was a salaried employee and commuting to the city, it was fairly common to work 40 hour weeks, with some exceptions. People were very tied to their train schedules. However, when our company moved to the suburbs, OT was expected. The VP would often joke that he expected us to work half-days - it was ok to knock off after 12 hours.

[bettyandbob]

The only people I know who have a standard 40 hour work week are government employees. Even then there are quite a few positions in the government where people were expected to put in a lot more--when my dh was with the government he never worked less than 60. Dh is now putting in about 60 + hours outside the government.

 

When I was a teacher my full time contract said I worked 35 hours a week. I never worked 35 hours. I don't know any teachers who did. That suggests you spend no time preparing lessons or grading anything.

[alegnab]

I used to be a salaried employee for a few years before retiring after my first baby was born. I worked a minimum of 40 hours per week. Dh has been a salaried employee for the last 24 years. He has worked a minimum of 40 hours per week all that time. When he got into the IT/computer security division ten years ago, he started working more hours. He usually works through lunch, eating when he can. He often works late in the evening. He brings his computer and blackberry home. He often checks his messages and does emails through his blackberry. He sometimes works several hours at night on his computer. Occasionally he's required to work a Saturday or Sunday in addition to his regular workdays. He doesn't have time to play around or good off at work, either (not that he would anyway). He's a manager, so a lot of responsibility falls on him. He does not get paid any extra for the extra time he works. It was difficult to decide which option to pick, because his hours vary so much.

 

I think you should have put 36-39 and 40 as separate options in your list. Otherwise, you won't know how many actually work a full 40, unless all those who selected the 36-40 option put a message saying how many hours they work.

 

I think your friend needs to be glad he has a good job.

[Rosy]

DH typically works 40 hour weeks. If there's a deadline or he wants to make some progress on an important project he'll stay late. For a while that was happening weekly, sometimes even twice a week. He's worked up to 60 hr. weeks, but typically he doesn't have to work more than 40.

[scrappyhappymama]

When I worked outside the home, salaried always meant well over 40 hours. In retail management I typically worked 55-60 hours. 55 was the minimum expected. During busy seasons, I'd be there many, many more hours-overnights, 36 hours straight, crazy stuff.

 

In my office accounting job, 45 hours was the standard minimum, but we often worked over that to get projects done. Accountants in the field worked many more hours some weeks.

 

Now my DH has a salaried position of 40 hrs a week, with occasional extra hours. We feel really blessed.

 

I've honestly never heard of a salaried full-time position working less than 40 hours a week.

[fivetails]

dh isn't a salaried employee right this minute, but he's in the middle of a job change set to take place any day now (same company, slightly diff role) - when his new job starts, he'll be salaried - but with the same hours as he is now. If that makes sense LOL

 

Basically he'll be a salaried employee working Monday - Friday, 12 hour shifts (with about an hour drive each way), plus he has the work phone for on-call if needed every other week. So, 60hours + whatever on-call. On-call might mean just answering calls, but it sometimes can mean having to head out to the site at 2am. Hopefully not much of that.

 

His job: Warehouse Supervisor & Buyer (oilsands industry)

 

 

His old job, back east before we moved, was also salaried. He worked Mon-Fri, 8-5, as a shipper/reciever. (Hardware store)

[abreakfromlife]

My dh is a salaried employee - civil engineer and only works 40 hrs a week...they don't allow overtime, which is one of the huge things we like about his company. He has a half hour drive to work, and he leaves around 7 and doesn't get home until around 6 - I can't imagine what life would be like if he was working 50, 60 hours a week. How do you have a life with that kind of schedule? I just can't imagine him not coming home until 7 or 8 at night, and still having work to do. Can't even fathom that.

[fivetails]

I can't imagine what life would be like if he was working 50, 60 hours a week. How do you have a life with that kind of schedule? I just can't imagine him not coming home until 7 or 8 at night, and still having work to do. Can't even fathom that.

 

We have a life on the weekend. Or at least the part that he doesn't sleep through. ;)

 

My post is right before yours (M-F, 12 hr shifts + hour travel each way and having the on-call phone every 2nd week)

 

And actually - my dh has it good compared to some of the oilsands workers. My cousin worked 12 hour shifts (same company, diff job) like this: 5 days, 5 nights, 5 off. So by the time he made his 5 off, he was pretty exhausted. There are others working 17 days on, 3 off. 21 on, 4 off. Stuff like that. (usual labour laws about the # of days in a row you can work don't apply up here) Stuff like that. I'm not gonna complain... much. :tongue_smilie:

 

It's long days for him though - he's up between 4-4:30, showers & jumps on the work bus at 5am... gets home around 7:15pm. Eats, flops on the couch. Rinse & repeat until the weekend.

[Lovedtodeath]

38-40 hours now

 

50-70 hours in the past

[Jennifer in MI]

Dh is an Episcopal Priest. He is the only one on staff. So, he works a LOT of hours. His work is pretty flexible most of the time, so I feel blessed that he can come home at 4:30 if one of our kids has a baseball game. But, he usually works 6 or 7 days a week - including weekends and holidays(obviously! LOL). And, then there're the emergency phone calls in the middle of the night or as we're sitting down to Christmas dinner. And, I joked that I gave up dh for Lent - we didn't see much of him!!

 

I think with all his hours including the ones where he comes home and answers emails after we go to bed and all, he averages over 55 hours/week.

[Danestress]

I would say he's at work most days for at least 10 hours (although he takes a short lunch break most days). He's often there longer than that and often does work on the weekends from home.

 

It doesn't seem like that much to me - I guess because we only live a few minutes from work, so he has essentially no commute. Also, because he has a variety of things he does (court some days, mediations, depositions, office time, consults, writing) I don't think it feels really oppressive to him. I think maybe working in a pharmacy would seem more tiring because it's more the same all the time.

 

I'm sure there are some weeks when he doesn't work 56 hours - even apart from paid vacation, but he works hard.

[Shenan]

Including all the paperwork time at home, picking up parts packages, ordering parts from home, checking emails before he goes to bed, etc. Dh puts in probably 48-52 hours a week. Now if you include his travel time back and forth to work were talking 58-62 hours a week. He is suppose to work 5:30am-2pm everyday but he comes home and still works on coordinating, fielding phone calls, checking emails, etc. Not to mention everything that decides to wreak havoc at 1:45 pm about 2 to 3 times a week which causes him to stay late on the job.

 

This poor man even gets calls on his days off. They were calling him WHILE I was in labor with our last child!:glare: A PLANNED induction!!

 

Everyone in the company knows he is currently in Georgia taking classes for an upcoming install this summer and dh told me his phone had 18 messages on it last night. NONE of which were from us, HIS FAMILY!

 

Oh, and dh's employer INTENTIONALLY placed him as a salaried employee about 4 years ago. The savings were in their favor. :tongue_smilie:

[Barb_]

I think your friend is full of beans. He just needs to take a poll of his 10 or 20 closest buddies not in the medical field. 3 12's are common in Pharmacy, nursing, etc, but not in the rest of the work world.

 

Barb

[Melissa in FL]

This was sort of hard to answer. For the most part he works over 50 hours. The last couple of weeks it has been over 60 hours, but he doesn't think that will last to much longer. He is also responsible to have his work completed no matter what. This means that during any vacation he is always in touch with his office and clients. Often when we're on vacation he spends hours taking care of business, but is still using vacation days.

Melissa

[Shenan]

 

 

He does have to carry a cell phone that beeps every bleeping time somebody steps a bleeping foot outside of their bleeping electronic monitoring range even in the middle of the bleeping night. Not that I mind that or anything.;)

 

 

 

I know EXACTLY how you bleeping feel!!!

 

:lol:

 

one of the bonuses of dh going salaried 4 years ago was no more being on-call. :D No more bleeping calls in the middle of the night or any other inopportune time. ;)

[EKS]

All the times my husband and I have been salaried, we have always worked 40+ hours per week.

[Melissa in FL]

I can't imagine what life would be like if he was working 50, 60 hours a week. How do you have a life with that kind of schedule? I just can't imagine him not coming home until 7 or 8 at night, and still having work to do. Can't even fathom that.

 

This is one of the main reasons we homeschool. My kids still get to eat and spend time with dad every day. We eat dinner after he gets home around 8:30 and the kids usually don't get in bed until 10pm. This lets them spend a little time with him. Homeschooling also allows us to be flexible with vacation days. He's had to work the last two weekends and hasn't had much family time. Next week things will slow down a bit and he'll be able to take Monday as a vacation day. We're planning on going to Bush Gardens for the day. If my kids were in a traditional school they would never see him.

Melissa

[LaxMom]

When I was working as a software engineer, I worked mainly from home (sometimes on site) and could easily fill 60-70 hours a week. I had multiple projects going on at once and, generally, had clients with 24 hour shops, so I was available (within reason) to all three shifts for input on designs or to answer questions / fix glitches.

 

My husband is a firefighter/paramedic. On a 24 on / 48 off schedule, their weekly average is 56 hours and some change. They've recently gone to 24/72, so now their average is a more civilized 42.something hours. ;)

 

The great irony is that, for all the hours worked, I'm pretty sure our neighbors thought we were both unemployed for years. LOL.

[CatMomof3]

My dh runs a construction company so he works about 12 hours at the office (in by 4 am) plus random phone calls during the evening and weekends. He also draws plans out on CAD on some weekends. All totaling appox 70-75 hours a week.

 

Alison

[xxxxxxxx]

If it is a week where he travels then it would be over the top of any of the choices. And that would not be including sleeping time in a hotel!

[Melissa B]

My dh works well over 60 hours per week, but he goes in at 4:00 am, so it feels like he is home quite a bit. He gets home around noon two days a week, around 3:00 pm two days a week and around 6:00 pm two days per week. We often go out to the park or swimming on the days he comes home around lunch time. It is really nice that the kids are home so he has time to spend with them during the day and can still get to bed around 7:30 each night.

[Deb in NZ]

I marked 51-55 hours as dh works at least that. Even when he was paid hourly he didn't recieved overtime until he had worked 50+ hours that week. 10-12 hour days are the norm here for construction & most companies work 6 days a week. Currently dh needs only do weekend work occasionally, but this wasn't the case for much of our marriage. He used to work 6-7 days / week. On a typical day dh leaves home at 7:00am & returns back around 6:00pm. Even on his weekends off dh spends at least 4-6 hours on work. 40 hours a week would seem like holidays!

Edited May 7, 2009 by Deb in NZ

[Rosie_0801]

I used to work 42 hours in retail. Dh was teaching the last three years and we lost count of the hours he worked. One reason he's no longer teaching... 40 hours is quite civilised.

 

Rosie

[Avila]

DH and I have never worked a salaried job that didn't have at least 50 hours per week expected. That was why I quit my full-time job when my oldest was a baby.

 

DH currently works almost 60, counting working from home and all the on-call cr*p he has to put up with. If we didn't homeschool, the girls would hardly get to see him except for weekends, and he works most Saturdays from home. I would call 40 hours a week a vacation at this point.

[3lilreds in NC]

DH works more than 40 hours per week. He tries not to work much at home now, because he doesn't like his boss that much ;), but sometimes he has to. He has the flexibility to come home to take the girls to many of their activities, so sometimes he works in the evenings. His company specifically states that they don't want employees who only want to work 40 hours per week - they expect everyone to work more than that. He used to be much more of a workaholic before we had kids. Thankfully they were enough of an incentive to make him want to be home more. :)

[JoyfulMama]

My dh is currently salaried for 45 hours as a manufacturing supervisor. Anything beyond that, at the plant, he gets straight time for. He does have on-call at least once a month, and gets paid if he has to go into the plant (rare). The reason they pay beyond the 45 is because they all do work more than 45 hrs - and it allows the company to be accountable for the longer hours, as it comes out of their pocket. In a typical economy, a 54-60 hr week is standard.

 

Last job, he was salaried for supposed 45 hrs, with no additional pay for additional hours, and he typically spent 65-70 hrs/week, and there were many weeks he worked 80. There were days he worked 20 hrs, was off 4, and was expected back in for another 12+. Yeah. He didn't work there long.

 

Job before that was the same as this one - 45 salaried, with straight time beyond that.