On 05/31/2016 01:31 PM, Bernardo Sulzbach wrote:

I see you write from an @redhat.com address. Are you saying that all US-based RedHat developers get 45 hour work weeks or less? I'm talking about what the papers say, not the actual amount of work.

I am not a labor lawyer so this is just my opinion on the legal status, but basically US has two categories of workers: exempt and non-exempt. The 'exemption' is from the labor rules that require paying overtime wages (1.5x the regular rate) for hours above 40hr/week. This is done to protect low-wage, mostly blue-collar workers who are 'non-exempt', i.e. must be paid overtime. Recently there was a policy change that moved the boundary between the categories (from $455/week to $913/week)

Most tech workers are in the 'exempt', or salaried category. I think the legal theory is that they are required to turn in a professional work product, which is supposed to take 40 hr/week, but if it takes more then that's them breaks.

So the answer to your question is that the papers say they work 40 hours per week, but in reality they work more. The employment law doesn't prescribe the actual number of hours worked by this class of employees, and the employer can set the work product expectations as they see fit.