<prompt> Human: To give a little background. In Summer 2014 i applied for and landed my first corporate job, I understood the distinction between being exempt vs non-exempt. I was told my base salaryhourly rate and what the premium pay 1.5 times base hourly rate for anything over 40 hoursweek. The role at the time was tedious, boring, very process oriented and I hated it, however, Im glad I suffered through it because by end of 2015 it enabled me to apply for and land the job I currently have at the same firm. The thing is, though, the job I currently have is not anything like the previous role in that it has a great deal more autonomy, I am responsible for a certain amount of project management and honestly, no one cares if I work remotely as long as I get my work done. Everyone else on my team is salariedexempt. I was told and understood that with an internal job transfer at the firm, I would not get a pay increase as lateral moves do not require rank change.That being said, the entry level salary for my current role is about 5k-7k more than the base salary I came into the firm with in 2014. My previous boss voluntarily went to HR to try and get this changed for me and broached the topic barely half a year into my time in the new role I was not planning to bring compensation up being brand new to the job, the area and all; seemed premature and presumptuous haha. Unfortunately, that boss moved to another area and my current boss, while awesome, recently told me that my raise was barely an extra dollar per hour though the bonus was much nicer than its been in the past since I started at the bank. Since then, my current boss has told me that she expects all her reports to do their work in 8 hours per day with very little exception. Additionally, as I continue to learnbe mentored in my role bit of a steep learning curve, I wont have extra work. In order to get overtime pay I will need advance approval. Ive earned OT pay since 2014 when I was hired and now Im told that I wont be able to get OT pay, so effectively, I have a pay cut and no one on my team is in this situation because they are all salaried so they work however many hours they want and get paid a stable paycheck.I have been in touch with the boss and HR expressing concern about just being changed to exempt because if im not going to earn OT, why shouldnt I just be classified like my team mates?Do I have any recourse? Am I likely to be stuck with the base salary and not able to earn OT even though my non exempt says I have opportunity to? Has anyone been in this situation before?Assistant: All this means is that you work only 40 hours per week. Youre not allowed to work more. Theyre not required to let you work enough hours to earn overtime, theyre only required to pay you overtime when you do.Human: this is what i suspectedfeared. So basically, despite being at the firm for 3 years and being in a role that on average pays more than my previous one, I will be paid less going forward than before.Assistant: That happens frequently when you go from hourly to salary. Which is kind of what happened to you, just without the change in pay structure.Human: well, i havent been changed to salary, but based on conversation with my boss and HR thus far, I have the option to request being changed from non exempt to exempt. I understand the consequence of giving up overtime, but at least if approved Id have a set pay since I wont be able to get OT anyway. if that makes sense?Assistant: Your job duties determine if youre exempt. Its not up to the company.Human: yes, i understand this, but if my job duties are congruentvery similar with my team-mates and they are exempt, how can i still remain non-exempt? last correspondence i received from HR: theyre Investigating my situation as apparently early last year, there was a major change for other employees at the firm for business alignment and some were moved from salaried to hourly im assuming due to the latest US labor law stipulating you must be earning 47k or more to be exempt, otherwise, youre non-exempt that I missed because I joined the new team after the fact.  <response>: The new law was put on hold. It sounds like you should be exempt then and then theres no reason for them to keep you as hourly. Wait and see what HR says. 