Here at GM, engineers have levels. A level 5 is the lowest level for an engineer. Often times you will hire in at level 5 or 6, and 7 might be about the highest level you get to. Each level also has 3 sections in it, A B and C. I know one or two 8th level engineers and they have been working there for 35+ years. At that level, it's pretty much expected you work 70 hours a week.
OK, I do accept that for some jobs, hours above and beyond are the normal, but it's still pretty black and white.
If you're working an average of 70 hour weeks. (14 hours a day five days a week -when do you guys sleep?) and you work 50 weeks of the year, then your average yearly working hours are ~3500hours.
Take your salary figure, divide that by 3500 and you get your hourly rate.
If you earn $40,000 a year then you get $11 an hour (you probably would get the same hourly rate working in Mc Donalds!). -in fact converted that amount is below the legal minimum wage in this country.
If you earn $100,000 a year, then your hourly rate is around $30 an hour.
Here at GM, engineers have levels. A level 5 is the lowest level for an engineer.
what happened to levels 1 - 4? or are they reserved for different types of job? (like level 1 may be a janitor?)
It's the fact that most salary jobs involve more than 40 hours a week. And it's unpaid overtime. That's one reason why it's salary pay, not hourly... Hourly pay has hardly any reflection on overall income. Just ask what our monthly, weekly, or yearly income is.
I suppose the crux of what we're coming down to here is the idea that you probably shouldn't look at work in terms of time and overtime if you're an exempt status employee.
You have a total work time and a total wage packet. if anything this should make it easier to work out than if there is the confusion of non standard over time rate pay worked at regular intervals. (though the possibility of bonuses company cars etc can muddy the mix, but these all have very easily defined values too!)
for example a company car that would be costing you $1000 a year to insure + $166 to lease (that's lease not loan repayments as it's generally cheaper to lease, and similarly you won't own the car at the end of it).
Anyway, that package of perks is worth an additional $3000 a year.
If you're a live-in employee then clearly your perk is worth the average rental price in your area.
If that total work is an average of 30 hours a week or 70 hours a week then it'd make no difference to the sums! you're still looking at yearly pay, divided by yearly hours worked.
Monthly or yearly take home would probably give a much better idea of levels of wealth, but not levels of worth.
A good example of that is the burger flipper who works ten hours a days 7 days a week earning $10 an hour (monthly take home ~3000) ($100 a day 30 days a month)
Compared to the consultant engineer who works 1 hour in a month and gets $3000 for that one hours work.
They both earn the same in a month, but one is clearly worth more, (or rather one of them has skills that are offered at a higher premium).