it's this way in the US too, if people would read the actual contract for a typical office white collar job 40hrs/week is in there along with whether or not you get paid overtime. Most IT workers do not get paid overtime but some do. In some US jobs paid overtime is required by law and in others it is not. Also, different US states have different labor laws too so there's multiple governments and laws involved plus the whatever the employee and company have negotiated between themselves. I can't think of a single labor law that applies to every single working person in the US no matter what they're paid for. [edit: except taxes]