Salary means you get paid a certain amount of money every year but everything else is defined by your contract: You might not have to come in at all if your contract doesn't stipulate that, you could even literally be paid to do nothing or you could be on call 24/7 or anything in between.

This is not the same thing as contractors, who are not employed by the company and bill for their work at an hourly rate. Salary is more stable income usually with decent to good benefits in the US and can work any number of hours (or lack thereof). Contractors can make more per hour, but still have to cover their own medical, dental, retirement, etc.

It's not necessarily contract work, but yeah I guess you could describe it that way.

You get hired for $X/year, and that's what you make. Your paycheck, if weekly for example, will always be $X/52 regardless of how many or how few hours you worked.

My boss, my boss's boss, etc. - you work at the right place and are valuable enough, they 100% don't care if you're a little late, even if it's every day! They let me leave early if I want too and if my lunch break runs a little long, that's fine. Not every place is a micromanaged shithole.

On the other hand, if something runs late and I have to stay and address it, I don't complain so I guess it's a two way street. I've even come in early before when necessary (though it's rare).