<prompt> Human: The reason I am asking is because I am nearly 30 now, and most of my life I have worked for minimum wage in NYC and can barely pay my rent, bills, expenses, etc. and would like to try and save some money by cutting my transportation costs by working from home. I currently work about 90-100 hours a week for 455week, so I have no problem investing the same amount of work hours if the pay from home is going to be about the same, so that I will be saving money on commuting to work. However, most of the work from home! opportunities either 1 sound like scams, or 2 are not financially stable enough to depend on as an income. So is it viable to actually maintain a career from home, or am I pretty much stuck in my current employment position for the foreseeable future? Because I dont have any marketable job skills that employers will be wanting to pay more for, and also after I finish work and all my responsibilities are tended to, I dont have much time left over to invest in a new employable skill such as programming.Assistant: It is hard for me to believe that you work 90-100 hours a week in NYC of all places and only make 455wk. That would make no sense due to OT laws and the fact that the minimum wage there is higher than many places in America even though its a HCOL area. That part just sounds phony as heck. To answer your question though the answer is yes, many people actually work from home. Create a website, youtube, finding legit companies that allow you to work from home, etc. You just need some type of skill set and a way to market your product. It is still work at the end of the day though. By the way, if you truly do work 90-100 hours per week as you claim, it sounds like it could be illegal since NYCS minimum wage is 11.00 per hour and at 40 hours thats 440 now add that plus overtime of 50-60 hours per week and thats 1265-1430 per week and if no overtime thats still double what you claimed to make at 990 per week. Check your taxes, withholdings, etc, because unless you are illegal you are getting ripped off by half your check. Human: I am exempt from overtime pay because my fixed weekly salary is 455wk. So hourly pay does not apply to my position.Assistant: Thats funny as I just looked up exempt salaried NYC employees minimum pay and it is NOT 450wk... In fact it is 787.50wk for REALLY SMALL companies of 10 or less and 825wk for any company that has more than 10 employees. If you work where you claim then you definitely have more than 10 employees including yourself. That would net you much more than 450 per week after taxes. Like I said hard to believe what you claim is true. Either you need to talk to your HR department or you arent telling the whole truth. 90-100 hours a week youd be better off two part-time jobs at that many hours. Either way you arent being paid properly. Numbers dont lie. Human: We have more than 10 employees, but my boss and his CPA have told me that the federal minimum salary is 455week and that the 825wk takes places in December 2017, which is at the end of the year. We do not have an HR department. I dont understand what more there is to say. If I could get 2 different jobs, I would, but nobody is hiring me. Running a healthcare company, Im sure my boss is strict about sticking to the law, and hes had this company for over two decades and hasnt gotten into any trouble with previous employees, so Im fairly certain nothing he does is illegal at all.Assistant: No, what your boss is doing is illegal. You cannot work 90100 hours a week and make 4.50 an hour. Do you legally have the right to work in the USA?Human: Yes, I am a US citizen, born and raised in NYC..I thought the purpose of a fixed salary pay was so that the employer could have the employee work longer than 40 hours without having to pay overtime. Otherwise, why does a fixed salary pay exist? If everyone works exactly 40 hours a week, then theres no difference between hourly and salary, so might as well place the employee on fixed salary which means that notions of hourly do not apply, regardless of if its less than the minimum hourly, since the employer is legally paying minimum salary. Its either that or I dont get the job at all, so I chose the lesser of two evils and accepted employment over being homeless..  <response>: There is a legal minimum salary you must be paid to be considered a salaried exempt employee. Otherwise every employer would classify all their employees as exempt and pay a salary that is less than minimum hourly wage.Your employer is paying you less than the minimum amount to be considered exempt, therefore you are not exempt and your employer must pay you the minimum hourly wage plus overtime pay per your state or federal laws.You should find a new job and file a complaint with the department of labor to get the thousands of dollars you are legally owed by your employer. 