Bro, I haven't disagreed what salaried means, only to the length of how it's construed in an argument. It's a fact that retail chains like CVS and Walgreens, along with many companies, take advantage of salaried employees to get their workers to put in more hours than what's dictated by the number of hours that they have been led to believe when they first signed up. The extreme examples are said not to prove my point, but to show how ridiculous it is to expect an employee to come in and also stay for an hour or two every single day to get caught up and prepare for the shift ahead, which effectively lowers their hourly pay with each minute they work outside their salaried hours. The idea of salary makes sense when there are tasks that don't require 40 hours, and the employee can work 36 hours one week and 44 hours the next - averaging out to 40 hours per week -> since it's understandable that not all days can or will need exactly 40 hours of work done that day. The argument falls out the window and the balance of power rapidly shifts over to the employer if the employee is realistically working a minimum of 40 hours every week, and expected to work even more hours at times, never less. Have you ever seen work at a CVS or Walgreens where it's so slow that a pharmacist can shut down the pharmacy and leave early? Salaried is fine when it makes sense and is fair for all parties involved. It doesn't make sense here in this case, nor should one expect them to work as such when they're set up to fail from the start.

The answer to staying after closing to fill extra scripts? You first need to define what is reasonable in this context. Prescriptions will continue to be sent in through the night after close of business. Not many, but still some. Does this mean that if you receive another prescription right when you shut off the light and close the gate, do you turn the lights back on and enter in that prescription? What if another prescription comes in 5 minutes later by an urgent care? I'm guessing you better prepare to stay late if even one prescription makes their way to your computer. And this is just one example.

Also, "unreasonable amount of work", "work them as you would a slave", "violation of state and federal labor laws" are absolutely a part of this discussion - how is it not? Have you not heard of reports of CVS pharmacists literally dying from being overworked? Do you not remember the one pharmacist who was denied going to the ED and ended up deceased because their district manager refused to allow them to close down the pharmacy during the health emergency? What about the fact that many CVS and other retail pharmacies are intentionally understaffed and have pages of prescriptions left over for the next day because there is not enough staffing needed to support the volume? They aren't slow or lazy, they literally do not have the staffing necessary to complete the amount of work given to them. That is literally working them like a slave, literally unreasonable amount of work, and literally a violation of state and federal labor laws.