did my employer break oral contract

[Tinker]

i am from south carolina
in january of this year i was hired out by a temp agency to a company as an administrator. my boss had given me and the employment agency an oral agreement of what and how i would be paid if hired on full time at the end of three months. in april when my evaluation was due my boss hired me full time but changed my pay from being salary to hourly and lowered the rate substantially. he used the excuse that because i had no other employees directly under my authority and because we were a small company that "by law" he could not put me on salary. the rate was lowered and he stated to me that if i could not except it he hoped i would give them my two weeks notice. obviously i felt bullied and taken advantage of - but did i have any options? did he break an oral contract to me or the temp company? could i have been hired on as a salaried employee in this small company without any employees under my direct authority? help!!!!!!

 

[loku]

As for your being on salary, he got that wrong also. You may or may not be exempt under the federal wage and hour law, which he is probably thinking of (most exempt employees are on salary and most non exempt are hourly), but in either case, you could be on salary. There is no law prohibiting that. The thing is that is you are nonexempt, you would also get overtime.