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Wyoming Bank Overtime

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In Wyoming, can a supervisor legally require a bank branch Assistant Manager to work 6 or 7 days per week, 8 hours per day? In the past, the Assistant Manager has always had 2 days off every week. If so, is the Assistant Manager entitled to a raise?

Some states, and they are few, have certain limits on overtime. In Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, laws have been passed requiring employers to give their workers a day off per week. Usually, however, those laws do not apply to salaried employees.

Certain occupations have limits on the number of overtime hours people may work. Nurses in Massachusetts, for example, cannot be required to work overtime. The federal government, through the Department of Transportation, has set up safety standards limiting the number of hours long-haul truckers can work at a stretch. They may not work more than 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in an 8-day period.

That being said, however, the answer to this question is still a “yes.” In the final analysis, very few states have any restrictions on the number of hours an employee may be required to work, provided that employee is over 18 years old.

Employers in Wyoming (and other states as well, of course) could make an employee work 12 hours or more a day for 7 days a week. Some actually do so. While it would be ideal if employers always paid more when extending an employee’s responsibilities or hours, there is generally no legal obligation that they do. Employers are within their rights to change working conditions regularly. Some do so.

Employers must abide by federal and state overtime laws. These laws, however, are designed primarily for wage earners and some salaried workers. A category of salaried worker called “salaried exempt” is outside the protection of the overtime laws. It sounds as if this employee is “salaried exempt.”

A salaried employee earning less than $455 weekly is always under the protection of the overtime laws. In other words, he or she must receive “time-and-a-half” when working more than 40 hours in a week.

Employers may not simply designate somebody a manager to make them “salaried exempt,” however. To fall into this category, a manager or executive must usually have supervisory powers over a minimum of 3 workers. That generally means the independent power to hire and fire. JH