[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Cliffs notes: Don't expect overtime pay and probably don't ask for it (unless that's the culture in your company).

This is my working arrangement - I work for a consulting company and am an exempt employee. Actually, my wife is, too (for another company). My situation is I don't get overtime. My wife gets straight time. I don't expect to get any sort of overtime pay for work over 40 hours, since that's my arrangement. However, when it's known ahead of time that there'll probably be a some overtime, we (my company) write it into the contract that significant or continuous overtime gets billed to the customer at time and a half. I don't get any of that, but I have been told "we'll see if we can get you some of that" by our contracts guy. I say "alright (whatever)" and I don't expect to get any of it and I don't ask for it, as my job's not really a "put in your 40 and go home" kind of job. In the end, it boils down to me not getting any of the extra cash directly, but it tends to make a good impression when it's time for reviews or a bonus.

Now traveling is different - not for overtime, but all expenses plus some sort of per diem. If you're a single guy renting a place, this could be a pretty sweet deal to go on-site somewhere for an extended period of time - free rent (usually somewhere pretty nice) and per diem on top of your salary makes it pretty nice.

My wife gets straight time for her overtime, but that's the arrangement she has with her company.

Of course, this is all engineering, so it's probably different for your field (assuming it's not engineering).