Is it appropriate to require salaried ee's to work OT

[TechnoHead]

I work for a small company (75 employees) and about 90% are salaried employees. We have been told that we must work 45 hours a week.

The employees affected by this edict are salaried and do not receive OT or comp time. The reason one VP gave for the required extra time "is some people are working a lot of hours and others aren't so this will make it more even."

All of us in the company will work overtime when our personal workload demands it, however, this doesn't make sense.

When you are hired, you are hired to perform a specific job at a specific annual salary (per the offer letter). No mention is made that you must work a specific number of hours in a given week.

However, this means I can work 35 hours (which I have done) when work is slow and 50 hours when work is busy in any week(which I have done).

I live in CO.

Is this required overtime legal?

 

[loku]

Unless you have an employment contract that states otherwise, the 45 hour week is legal. Your only recourse would be to quit.