I am confused about the meaning of "salaried" vs. "hourly" payment, when it comes to matching it up with work life as I know it.

I think I know the abstract definition; to paraphrase what is e.g. outlined in the tag description:

• A salaried employee receives a fixed amount of money (e.g. each month), and it doesn't matter how many hours they actually work.
• An employee who is paid by the hour receives a certain amount of money for each hour worked, and they are paid the exact amount of money matching the hours worked.

This is explained time and again in many posts on this site, e.g. in that answer (to name just a single example):

(...) someone accused you of "stealing" by working a half-hour less. (...) for a paid employee I don't think this accusation would make sense. If you were paid by the hour, your time-tracking would reflect your 9-to-16:30 workday, so you wouldn't be paid for the missing half-hour anyway. If you were salaried, you'd be expected to use your professional judgment about how you provide value to the company and when you do your most productive work.

So, what am I?

The following statements apply to me (as per my work contract and/or as a direct consequence thereof):

• I get a fixed annual salary of X €, distributed evenly across 12 months.
• The regular weekly working time is 40 hours.
• When necessary for the company, I can be required to work overtime within legal limits, for which I receive no extra money.
• If possible while meeting the job requirements, I can use flextime to compensate for that overtime.
• If I work less than those regular 40 hours, I will not get proportionally less money, but (at the very least) a reprimand (the rationale being that I am supposed to work for 40 hours for my money, as stated in my contract, and not less).

As far as I can tell, something like this is pretty much the norm at least in software development (probably covering many more types of jobs) at least in Germany (possibly in most or all of the EU).

So, would I describe this arrangement as:

• "salaried" - because a fixed salary is agreed upon in advance and there is no way the salary gets adapted based on my working hours

or as

• "hourly" - because it very much plays a role how many hours I work and working less than agreed upon would imply I get some of my payment undeservedly

?

I am confused about the meaning of "salaried" vs. "hourly" payment, when it comes to matching it up with work life as I know it.

I think I know the abstract definition; to paraphrase what is e.g. outlined in the tag description:

• A salaried employee receives a fixed amount of money (e.g. each month), and it doesn't matter how many hours they actually work.
• An employee who is paid by the hour receives a certain amount of money for each hour worked, and they are paid the exact amount of money matching the hours worked.

This is explained time and again in many posts on this site, e.g. in that answer (to name just a single example):

(...) someone accused you of "stealing" by working a half-hour less. (...) for a paid employee I don't think this accusation would make sense. If you were paid by the hour, your time-tracking would reflect your 9-to-16:30 workday, so you wouldn't be paid for the missing half-hour anyway. If you were salaried, you'd be expected to use your professional judgment about how you provide value to the company and when you do your most productive work.

So, what am I?

The following statements apply to me (as per my work contract and/or as a direct consequence thereof):

• I get a fixed annual salary of X €, distributed evenly across 12 months.
• The regular weekly working time is 40 hours.
• When necessary for the company, I can be required to work overtime within legal limits, for which (as per the contract) I receive no extra money.
• In practice, I can compensate for said overtime by working less on other days, though it is not guaranteed, should there ever be so much existentially crucial work to be done.
• If possible while meeting the job requirements, I can use flextime to compensate for that overtime.
• If I work less than those regular 40 hours, I will not get proportionally less money, but (at the very least) a reprimand (the rationale being that I am supposed to work for 40 hours for my money, as stated in my contract, and not less).

As far as I can tell, something like this is pretty much the norm at least in software development (probably covering many more types of jobs) at least in Germany (possibly in most or all of the EU), for all levels, i.e. starting at entry-level positions up to project management.

So, would I describe this arrangement as:

• "salaried" - because a fixed salary is agreed upon in advance and there is no way the salary gets adapted based on my working hours

or as

• "hourly" - because it very much plays a role how many hours I work and working less than agreed upon would imply I get some of my payment undeservedly

?