I work in oil and gas and have some experience work g on compensation structures for field personnel with appropriate lawyerly support.
In the past most field staff were paid a salary which was a sort of ‘keeper’ compensation thatwas set according to the work scope or your staff , some workers are on a regular rotation, some different functions can go weeks on end of busy work off shore then months of low level activity, and some spend most of the time not doing anything g, but when the phone rings need to be at the heliport in 2 hrs and be ready for so e tough hours.
On top of that the field team would get a ’ rig bonus’ for everyday offshore , with various add ons for the type of service being run. This daily rig rate would be anywhere between 30-80 % of the total annual compensation, and 200k a year for a busy senior MWD or directional driller was not outrageous.
So a driller or a roughneck would have a very predictable salary, an directional driler , MWD , completions hand quite a bit more variable and fishing hand, quite erratic.
Anyway the general goal was balance activity with compensation and ensure you were paying sufficient to keep the people you want in the industry. People looked at what was the minimum they needed in a quiet month to pay the bills and on a yearly basis was the total shit to cash ratio worth it for the work done and time away from home.
The FLSA took a whole new take on that , now for quite a while it was ignored , thi gs got busy , lawyers noticed and a whole set of ‘did you work for x and not get overtime’ placards went up.
So everyone had to rejig the compensation structure to be in compliance with the FLSA. Which is fine and well, just different.
So under FLSA you have to track hours worked , which means hours working. So you may be on a rig and if you have a 12 hr shift , you will get paid 12 hrs, the remaining 12 hrs , even though you are still on a rig, you are not working.
Sometimes shifts go longer and the hours have to be tracked.
Any hours over 40 hrs in a week must be paid at overtime rate.
When you come off the rig , that’s it, no work, no pay needs to be paid according to FLSA.
Land work the hours worked are generally hotel door to hotel door.