An employer tells a salaried employee they cannot claim overtime pay.
Premiumintermediate8 minutes
The Situation
What They Said
“You cannot claim overtime — you are a salaried employee.”
Said by a manager when a salaried employee who regularly works more than 45 hours per week asks about overtime compensation.
The Fallacy
False Equivalence / Misleading Generalisation
This statement falsely equates 'being salaried' with having no overtime rights. While senior managerial and executive employees earning above a threshold are exempt from overtime provisions, this does not apply to all salaried employees. The argument exploits the assumption that any salary arrangement overrides statutory rights, which is legally incorrect for the majority of workers.
What the Law Says
Your Legal Foundation
Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997
Section 9 — Ordinary hours of work
“An employer may not require or permit an employee to work more than — (a) 45 ordinary hours of work in any week; (b) nine hours in any day if the employee works five days or fewer in a week; or (c) eight hours in any day if the employee works more than five days in a week.”
Work beyond these thresholds is overtime, regardless of whether the employee is paid a salary or an hourly wage.
Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997
Section 10(1) — Overtime
“An employer may not require or permit an employee to work overtime except in accordance with an agreement. An employer must pay an employee at least one and one-half times the employee's wage for overtime worked.”
Any employee below the earnings threshold who works more than 45 hours per week is entitled to overtime pay at 1.5 times their wage, regardless of salaried status.
Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997
Section 6(1) — read with the BCEA Earnings Threshold Notice — Exclusion from certain provisions
“The Minister of Employment and Labour may by notice in the Gazette vary any basic condition of employment... Employees earning above the prescribed annual earnings threshold are excluded from certain provisions including overtime pay.”
Only employees earning above the annually prescribed earnings threshold (updated by ministerial notice each year) are exempt from overtime entitlements — most salaried workers fall below this threshold and retain full overtime rights.
What Scripture Says
God's Word on This
Luke 10:7 (NET)
“Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the worker deserves his pay. Do not move around from house to house.”
A worker's labour deserves fair compensation — requiring additional hours without additional pay violates this foundational principle.
James 5:4 (NET)
“Look, the pay you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
Withholding lawful overtime pay is a form of wage theft — Scripture describes it as a cry that reaches God himself.
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What They'll Say Next
Common Counter-Arguments
After you respond, they may push back with these arguments. Members get the full rebuttal for each.
They might say: “You agreed to work reasonable overtime when you signed your contract.”
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They might say: “Your salary already includes overtime — it is built into what we pay you.”
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They might say: “You are a manager — managers are exempt.”
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