Pay Day

Ever since I was employed as a social worker, until November 2016, I was a salaried employee, and my expectation was that I worked until I completed the basic tasks required of me by my employer. So, at most of my jobs, I had the luxury, as I saw it, of working overtime to achieve my task goals vs. feeling pressured to complete tasks within a certain time frame and feeling rushed. I do not like feeling rushed. At some jobs, I was also allowed to accrue comp time, and take it with permission.

So, in 2016, the United States Department of Labor issued a ruling on the Fair Labor Standards Act https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/.  My employer chose to interpret this as anyone in a job category that is below the standard for exempt employees will be considered an hourly employee, not a salaried employee.  That included my job category. So, I am now restricted to working just 40 hours a week, unless overtime is approved, and there is really no reason to approve overtime for my job category. I have learned to adjust to this.

But this also means I am not paid once a month, as I have been used to since I was working, and, as my father was paid since I was a small child. I do remember when my father was changed to a monthly salary, my parents had some tense discussions about managing the family finances, but they did it.

So, sometimes, I lose track of payday, as I did just recently.  Yesterday was payday.  I was making an entry in my checkbook register tonight, and thought payday should be coming up soon. I thought it would be the end of the month, but I logged onto my bank website and lo and behold, there was a deposit in my checking account yesterday.  Hmmm!  I cannot keep up with payday, but I am always pleased when it arrives.