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We both get paid hourly! I am union and I think I am very fortunate, we get great compensation and have wonderful overtime and holiday policies. However, my husband is a non union welder, and his pay isn't great. But, they get lots of opportunities for overtime and working extra, so that makes it a little better. In general. I think for us, hourly pay is great!

I get paid hourly. I don't always work the same number of hours, but I also don't inform my husband. He typically checks to see that something was deposited for me and if it's extremely different than previous weeks, he mentions it.

I chose this arrangement, I like it because it gives me flexibility and I don't feel guilty if I have to take time off. I don't get paid for vacation time and I get no benefits, but again, I chose it.

I don't understand your postscripts....is there something more going on?

My husband is a pipe fitter but he is part of a union so his pay/benefits are pretty good. He also works in aerospace and they usually treat their employees really well.

He actually prefers to work hourly because of the overtime!

Does he have a minimum # of hours he always works or is guaranteed by his company? Maybe budget off of that to soften the pain from fluctuations? My husband isn't hourly but does work in a commission based business so I totally get the frustration over varying pay checks. We set our spending so that our basic monthly needs can be easily met on just his salary portion of pay, even though his commission is the larger portion. That way, when he has a big swing in commission pay outs, it just affects our ability to save that month, vs our ability to pay bills.

@petitenoisette: What was the reason for less hours, was he sick, did he take days off and you didn't know it? eta: I am not sure I understand how a half day threw things so far off? Maybe he was between jobs?

Sometimes my pay is less from week to week, but my husband usually knows (he manages the finances) because it means I was out taking care of our son or on an appointment he knew about.

My DH is hourly. I don't watch his pay closely (I monitor the bank account, he asks me what we have to spend - this is what works for us). I have sort of a minimum that I expect his pay to be every two weeks and as long as it's over that I don't ask much. He's not allowed OT, unless there are certain situations. SO he's typically right around 40/week. His health benefits are far superior to mine and that's where we place value in his job because it's certainly not in his pay or some of the rules around the clock.

@petitenoisette: in regards to the budget- we (thankfully) no longer have to deal with this, but when DH and I were both making hourly we would always base our budget off of the least amount of hours we were likely to get. DH usually worked overtime, but I would budget based on a paycheck of 40 hours and I got a minimum number of hours at part time so that's what we counted my income as. Anything else was savings.

Tbh it was awful to have that instability. DH got a salary right before we had DD and I was so thankful that he got paid vacation and a pay bump/ reliable money.

DH gets paid hourly and there have been weeks with previous companies where he has worked less than average and his paycheck takes a hit. It sucks but it is what it is. At his current job they are slammed and he banks overtime hours every week at time and a half, so if they were to ever have a slow week (will likely never happen but who knows) he has that to top up his paycheck.

@petitenoisette: thanks. Usually he is on the same shift but the hours sometimes make my head spin. That sucks about Memorial Day.

@petitenoisette: I definitely think budgeting based on a 36 hour work week would probably be best year round if he's not getting paid for holidays or like the Friday after Thanksgiving and then also assuming he will need to be out sick a day or two here and there. Hugs.

@gingerbebe: I think 36 hours sounds about right. Most weeks I work 40 hours, but given holidays, I am sometimes hovering below that.

My husband never salary, it always hourly pay for him. And he does get paid for overtime (after 40 hours).
I prefer hourly pay.
His normal hourly paid is $35 an hour. After 40 hours work, he gets pay 1.5x more for OT.

He work 70 hours a week.
So the first 40 hours he works, he gets pay $35 an hour.
Then after that, the 30 hours overtime he works he gets $52.5 an hour (because 1.5x of $35).

It not bad, his paycheck is $3K a week. He does work really hard, he has to work 70 hours to get that $3,000 a week paycheck.

He does get pay weekly (a year there 52 weeks). I love weekly paychecks because there months where there are 31 days, so it climb over to an extra week next month.

My dh's employer was going to switch everyone with his previous title from salaried to hourly years ago. They never went through with it and I suspect it's because they did the math and realized it would cost them MORE, not less since he travels so much and works 12 hour days even when he's not traveling. I think the workers in CA from both of our companies are allowed to collect overtime for traveling after hours and going to dinners, evening functions, etc. even though they are salaried. I don't know all the details about it, I just suspect this after years of hearing things when going to national functions where CA employees are present. Anyway, he was promoted shortly after we heard about this so it doesn't apply anyway.