I am an administrative assistant at a bank and frequently work more than 40 hours per week. I think I'm entitled to overtime, but my friend says I'm not because I fall into an exemption for administrative employees. What do you think?
-- Trish, Dennis

I think you're right, Trish. In Massachusetts, the general rule is that salaried and hourly employees must be paid time and a half for work in excess of 40 hours per week. There are around 20 exemptions to this rule, one of which is for "professional, executive, and administrative employees." However, my understanding is that this exemption applies to those in management or supervisory positions, not to those, like you, who function as assistants or secretaries.

If you go to our Information Links page and click on the link for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, you can find a lot more information on this topic. Click on "Workplace" in the left margin and then on "Wages" and "Overtime." In addition to listing all of the exemptions to the overtime rule, this page provides contact information for the Regional Offices of the Attorney General, the folks who can help you (and any of our readers) who have questions about whether the overtime rule applies to a specific job. You can also try calling the Attorney General's Fair Labor Hotline at 617-727-3465.

(Submitted by the Editor)