So without giving too many details...I took a new job recently as an hourly employee. There was a casual mention of changing to salary in six months, but nothing definite. I didn't get a contract, my mistake.

So we are approaching 3 months on the job. Apparently it's "policy" to switch everyone to salary after 3 months. I'm concerned about this for a number of reasons. I see a lot of people staying late regularly, but I don't see any flex time or other benefit for this. I've stayed late a few times and put it on my time card as overtime. I got paid for the hours, but not for the overtime until I complained. I did finally get the overtime pay but certainly wouldn't have if I didn't make a fuss, even though it was clearly on my timecard. We turn in timecards at least 4 days before the end of each pay period, which makes me very uncomfortable. We basically are just supposed to "guess" for our hours on the last few days. I've mentioned this and the solution is that soon I'll be on salary.

I'm not anticipating a raise, as they were pretty stingy with money initially. I brought up my concerns about always staying late without any compensation, and said it would work well if I could flex my hours and stay late when needed and then make up that time by coming in late or leaving early another day. This plan wouldn't affect my job duties at all. I was basically shut down, told that that was impossible.

So...can my employer legally change me from hourly to salaried if I don't want to be changed? I'm assuming yes because we don't have a signed contract. Of course she assures me that I will be compensated and hardly ever have to stay late. She says she brings $100bills when the other employees stay late. I know this isn't true and they stay late all the time, not rarely like she says. Is there anything I can do or am I trapped because of my own bad decisions taking this job?