For the most part, people who work on rigs offshore are paid a day rate: $100 a day, or $500 a day, or whatever. They aren’t paid salaries. They don’t get overtime.
There are a lot of laws and regulations out there all stemming from the Fair Labor Standards Act about overtime. The crux of the question is this: if you’re making a lot of money and you are, within the meaning of the regulations, a supervisor, bur you are paid a day rate. You don’t technically have a minimum annual / weekly salary, do you? You have a minimum daily salary. So do you get overtime? You never have before.
According to the Fifth Circuit, yes. For now
The Fifth Circuit took the case en banc and here’s the argument. It’s a difficult one. It seems like there’s probably an easy fix: if you offer people a guaranteed minimum weekly instead of a day rate, you clearly comply. So it’s probably not the end of the world but it is a very interesting dispute. You know, if you’re into the deep dive into the department of labor regs and overtime pay. Which, if you’re reading this, you probably are.
Finally, an opinion: I have no idea. None. Some of these are easy. Some of these are hard. This one is real hard.