One thing I’ve seen with hourly managers at one of my past jobs is they are never scheduled 40 hours a week.

A salaried manager works five 10 hour days each week. For easy math say you make $52k or $1000 a week.

The hourly manager also works five 10 hour days each week but they are paid eight hours straight time and two hours of OT. So each week you work 40 hours straight time and 10 hours OT, totaling 55 hours straight time pay.

So for $1000 a week, your base pay rate would be $18.18 straight time and $27.27 OT. When most employers calculate sick time, personal time, or vacation time, they are going to use your base pay rate, not OT.

The hourly pay rate is lower because you are expected to get two hours of OT every day to compensate.

So any time you leave early, hours are cut, etc you lose out on that OT premium at the end of your shift.