On-call is unpaid overtime and we normalized it

Short summary

A well-researched argument that on-call duty is unpaid overtime disguised as 'ownership.' Cites FLSA exemptions, DOL classifications, and compensation data from Incident.io, Rootly, and The Pragmatic Engineer showing on-call pay ranges from $200/week to €1,000/week in Europe. The author argues paying more doesn't fix the core issue—unbounded availability expectations and unsustainable incident loads.

• •On-call is effectively unpaid overtime under FLSA exemptions for salaried engineers
• •Compensation ranges vary widely: $200–$500/week flat in the US, up to €1,000/week in Europe
• •Pay alone doesn't solve burnout; cap incident load and pay for standby time itself

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