In California, software engineers are exempt from overtime protections if they are "highly compensated" which is around $90,000 a year or $45 an hour and 50% of the time is spent coding, designing, testing, or documenting.
It's pretty normal for federal contractors. I think the legal requirement is that 48 hours means overtime, and a bad company might thus expect 47 while paying for only 40, but I get overtime right from the first extra moment. If I work 42 hours, I get 105% of normal pay for that week.
Usually I just work 40. I've known people to work 60, giving themselves 150% of normal pay.
Less is OK too, by prior agreement. We've set people up for 30 before. Most of the benefits are pro-rated, but we'd still cover the health insurance fully. You could still work more and get paid for those extra hours, but the benefits would be according to how many hours you signed up to work. Examples: If you sign up for 32 hours but work 38 hours, you get 80% benefits and 95% pay. If you sign up for 30 hours but work 50 hours, you get 75% benefits and 125% pay.
For one single data point, I currently live in Southern California, am paid just barely six figures, and receive overtime at 1.5x pay. I believe all of my coworkers who are software engineers also receive overtime (there are about 50 of us at this company).
I worked for one company where if you worked less than 5 hours over, it was considered casual and not paid. If you worked 5 or more then it was all the extra hours were paid. But it was always straight time.
