@ the OP:
It may not be a bad thing after all. I'm fire based, with an average 56 hour workweek. If your actual hours worked per week stay the same, then your hourly rate will, in fact, go up, if your quoted yearly salary is to remain the same. This, in turn, increases your hourly compensation for OT as well. Where I work, our yearly salary is our hourly rate x 56 (hours) x 52 weeks in the year. The extra half time, which averages three hours a week (212/4 = 53, leaving three to equal 56 hours), is the same as an extra hour and a half pay a week. This is in addition to your base salary, BTW. You won't see it on every check, but you'll usually see it at the end of most 28 day FLSA cycles. It shows up on my check as "regular > FLSA threshold."
You can exploit this and make tons of cash! Here's how:
When you do scheduled OT, it's paid at time and a half. That's the law. Besides being paid time and a half, those hours also count towards the 212 hour FLSA threshold for that 28 day cycle. Let's say you do 24 hours of OT. Instead of needing to get to 212 hours to start time and a half, the employer will pay time and a half when you reach 188 hours. That's an extra 24 hours of half time, or 12 hours of full time added to your check, in addition to the OT already worked. If you work at a place that gives copious OT, you can pad your salary nicely if you time it right. First, try and do your OT at the beginning of each 28 day cycle, so that you get that "half time" benefit. Also, really load up and work as much as you possibly can, when you work a cycle where you work 96 hours in the first two weeks, and 144 hours in the second two weeks. I've had several checks where I've netted well over 5k doing this. It's insane! I've already grossed almost 40k this year doing this. I had over $800 gross on the last check in reg > FLSA threshold pay alone.
Also, my dept has either 12 hour or 24 hour OT shifts. We work scheduled 24's, and cannot work over 36 straight, whether it's scheduled or mandatory. OT is based on a list where the person who worked the most recently gets put at the bottom of the list, and the person who worked the longest time ago gets the first call. People who sign up for 24's get preference over those who sign up for 12's, no matter what the last day they did OT. We have whatis called a "star 24". That's when the three shifts work in a consecutive fashion. One shift is just getting off, another is going to work tomorrow, and the third shift is working today. If you take 12 hours leave on your first or last day (schedule WOWOWOOOO), you can sign up for a 24 hour shift with virtually no competition from anyone else, since they're ineligible to work a 24 due to the 36 hour rule.
Have fun with it, and good luck.
Knew someone would pop up with FLSA. Problem as always; workers aren't very willing to band together to do much about their work environment fearing retaliation... which these same federal agencies will not defend against anyway. 
