Q: I am an accountant for a franchise owner and I am salaried. I understand that this means being exempt from the time clock, overtime, etc. There are times when I might work over the weekend or past the normal business day. My manager tells me there is no such thing as comp time and even that it is against the law to allow time off for extra time worked. This is the first I've heard of such nonsense.Are there laws on this subject for salaried employees? I've missed one day in the last six months, and I was docked a day's pay. How do you take away a day of earnings from someone who is salaried... view article details

The modern war for talent has created unprecedented opportunity and flexibility for experienced job-seekers and current employees. Still, as tech transforms the office and remote workers frolic in exotic locations, most folks are still focused on a simple agenda: put in work and get paid. But everyone in this evolving workforce deserves a work environment that encourages them to aim for a higher purpose. Whether it’s knowing your individual work contributed to the company’s bottom line or indirectly made some positive difference in a client’s life, there’s power in labor beyond the paycheck. ... view article details

Job descriptionAccountants and auditors ensure that firms are run efficiently by providing them with valuable financial information and accurate record keeping. Accountants on a day-to-day basis are responsible for bookkeeping, including the tracking of expenses and revenue, payroll, and paying bills. Accountants are also responsible for preparing balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and other financial reports, and may also analyze trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to predict future revenues and expenses.Accountants are increasingly becoming an important p... view article details

Job descriptionComputer Programmers are responsible for creating code that essentially tells a computer how to operate. They write, test, and maintain these coded instructions, also referred to as programs. The work of programmers has been expanded in today's world, due to the innovative and advanced technologies that now exist. Programmers are now heavily involved in all aspects of technical problem solving for companies. Common computer languages that programmers use include COBOL, C++, BASIC, Java, and HTML. Most programmers know several computer languages because they tend to be similar, m... view article details

This summer, Americans were paying, on average, $4.09 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline to fuel the vehicles they rely on to get to and from work everyday. This represents an increase of $1.14 over the same time last year.Salary.com™ set out to calculate just how much the escalating cost of commuting to work is eating into the average worker's take home pay. To accomplish this, we established some reasonable criteria.The average worker travels, round-trip, 29 miles each day. Vehicle fuel economy varies, but we will assume an average fuel efficiency rate of 18.8 miles per gallon. We will... view article details

If you open up a biology textbook and look at the pictures, you'll find a number of dull images of DNA, chromosomes, and photosynthesis that have been putting you to sleep since high school. Unless you’re looking at a book with new and enthralling scientific illustrations by Nicolle Fuller. As an independent science artist, Fuller conceptualizes and creates the scientific images found in magazines, scientific journals, and textbooks. Her artwork runs the gamut from paintings of ancient dinosaurs to intricate depictions of highly complex cellular systems. What every one of her pieces has in com... view article details

Pay Yourself Right When Being Your Own Boss The dream of working independently is a reality for almost 10 million people in the United States, or roughly 10 percent of the workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rewards of self-employment include independence from supervision, the ability to set your own hours, and the satisfaction of knowing you are writing your own ticket. And yes, if you want, you can often work in your bathrobe. Technology makes it easy to work wherever you go. With an up-front investment of a few thousand dollars in a computer, bandwidth (telephone,... view article details

The Hidden Savings of Working from Home A recent comparison of the salaries of in-office jobs and work-at-home jobs found that working from home typically comes with a slight pay cut. But that’s not quite the end of the salary debate when it comes to telecommuting jobs versus in-office jobs.While telecommuting jobs may pay slightly less than the same job done from a traditional office, there are a number of cost-savings associated with working from home that more than make up the difference.Here are 10 ways that working from home saves you money, including the obvious costs and some t... view article details

Are your workplace words and actions fun and harmless, or are you violating federal laws? Since people have various thresholds of what is appropriate and what is not, the answer is rarely black and white.This article explores seven scenarios that are at the very least inappropriate, but at their worst can eventually lead to loss of employment, an eroded reputation, and sometimes even legal action.Having a good time You like to knock back a few beers with colleagues after work.Having a few too many and donning the proverbial lampshade won't be good for your rep and it certainly won't p... view article details

In the early evening on a recent Thursday, Kiran Arora, a consultant at the compensation firm Watson & Wyatt Worldwide, was getting ready to leave for the weekend. No, it wasn't a holiday or a long weekend. Her work week runs Mondays through Thursdays. Arora traded in that one extra day each week to spend time with her family and her children.In a 2000 poll of more than 3,500 company executives by recruiting firm Management Recruiters International, Inc., 61 percent of the participants believed the 9-to-5 workday will disappear in the next 10 years.According to a 1998 study by the Employment P... view article details