Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: how long is too long?

Here's a lawyerly answer for you; that depends.

In some industries, there are restrictions on how many hours you can work in a day, for safety reasons. Commercial truck drivers, for example, must have a certain amount of rest time. If your job falls into one of these categories, then applicable rules regarding rest periods must be observed.

Other than that, she can require that you work extended hours, but, she has to pay for it. You must be paid time-and-a-half for each hour over 40 that you work in a week.

Some employers believe that if they pay their employees a salary, they do not need to pay overtime, by the way. This is not correct. The qualifications for being exempt from overtime are a bit more stringent than that. Unless you are a professional (doctor, lawyer, architect, something like that), write computer code, or are in a management position (with authority to hire and fire people) you probably do not qualify as an exempt employee, and you are entitled to receive overtime even if you are paid on salary.

Although you might have preferred to learn that you could not be worked past a certain number of hours, the overtime you are due may be a consolation. Also, maybe she will eventually figure out that at time-and-a-half, she does not get her money's worth from exhausted workers.