help: overtime/hourly/salary confusion

[AlphaGamDiva]

if anyone can answer this or tell me where to get the info, PLEASE help me!

i am a hairdresser. i technically work on salary. however, if we are slow and i get sent home, i lose pay. yet if i stay past my hours, i don't get paid for the extra time. salary gets treated like salary when you work over, but like hourly when you get sent home. is that acceptable?? i didn't think that was how salary worked. don't you get paid no matter what? sometimes you're busy and work 80 hours, sometimes you're not and work 30, but don't you get paid the same? it's a privately owned business so i don't know if the same rules apply, but lordy. i have to work a certain amount of hours for insurance, but i DON'T HAVE INSURANCE through my work, so that rule does not apply to me.

sorry, i've just been trying to find answers online with no luck. so i thought i would try here....gc normally has SOMEone with an answer to anything. thanks!