posted 21 years ago
Well, there's some irony there. When I was in high school (or gymnasium or whatever name they like to use for teen-age education where you are), we were told that increasing automation would soon lead to 30-hour work weeks.
That didn't happen. We have the automation, but the average U.S. employee was clocked at somewhere around 60 hours/week last time I heard.
IT people tend to run even higher. There was an article about IT workers burning out in USAToday about 2 days ago. As a group, we do tend to be a little workaholic anyway, but current circumstances have aggravated that, since the US IT workforce that's still working (down 560,000 over the last 2 years) is being called on to handle the work of their laid-off compatriots and told that if they don't, they can join them.
U.S. labor laws place most workers into one of 2 categories, Hourly or Salaried. Hourly workers normally work 40 hours/week. After that, it's usually 1.5 times their normally hourly pay rate except that in some cases it may be even higher.
Salaried (or exempt) is more the norm for IT workers except for the computer operator-type jobs. For that you get a flat salary regardless of hours worked. Technically it's supposed to mean that you have executive abilities, including the ability to work 80 hours one week and take the next off to make up for it. Realistically it means that they can make you work 60 hours consistently and thus have an effective hourly rate that's only 66% of what you'd be getting if paid by the hour. More enlightened companies do often provide some sort of extra compensation. Companies like the one Dilbert works for provide a token compensation that's more insulting than practical. And then, some companies simply don't even bother.
The U.S. norm was for an 8-hour 5-day work week. Over the last couple of years, I've seen a number do things like 9 hours for 4 days one week and 5 the next (so that you still log 80 hours/fortnight but get a day off to handle the weekday chores). This is in large part in reponse to the fact that the majority of households no longer have someone at home all day to greet repairmen, do daytime shopping, etc.
[ March 25, 2003: Message edited by: Tim Holloway ]
Often the most important part of the news is what they didn't tell.
)working 14/15 hours daily. Only the difference is companies in India generally don't pay for extra hours if you have less than 5 years of experience.
