If you are on a salary does that automatically mean you are exempt from OT.

It is not that simple.

If you are salaried exempt you are not eligible for overtime and you may be asked to work as many hours as the employer wishes for the same salary. At the same time if you work any part of a day you must be paid for the whole day even if you did not work the whole day.

If you are not an exempt employee you can still be paid a salary. Most of the time non exempt are paid hourly.

What is meant by Exempt and non exempt. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) covers wages and says that all employees covered must be paid at least minimum wage and overtime for work over 40 hours in a week.

There are some exemptions to this law and if you are covered under one of the exemptions you can be classified as an exempt employee and you are exempt from overtime. These are salaried exempt employees.

You can file the FLSA and all of it's rules and exemptions on the Department of Labor website at :
U.S. Department of Labor - Employment Standards Administration (ESA) - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Compliance Assistance-Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/)

Shirley

Some exempt employees get paid overtime and some employers try to get out of paying overtime by classifying their employees as "exempt". It is not so much about being non-exexmpt or exempt but about your actual duties.

Employee's exempt from the FLSA are not eligible for Overtime. They are not paid overtime. In the public sector they are sometimes awarded comp time if they work over, but not overtime.

There have been many changes to the FLSA and the last changes made even more employees exempt. It is still based on job duties and responsibilities, however, it is also now based more on salary than it was before.

What is meant by exempt is that you are exempt from the FLSA and overtime. Yes, the job duties dictate if you are exempt or non exempt. Once you are classified as exempt you are not eligible for overtime.

Shirley

An exempt employee can get overtime if their job would normally be classified as non-exempt. However, the employee may need to get legal advice about how to get the overtime. Also, maybe look into what government agencies might help with this.

Yes, this would be called a misclassification. It would mean that you are not really exempt but have been misclassified as exempt.

You can file a claim with the Department of Labor if you feel you have been misclassified. They will investigate and if the classification is wrong it will be corrected.

The most generally used classification is the administrative classification.

Under the new regulations, workers are employed in an administrative
Capacity if they are compensated on either a salary or fee basis at a rate
Of at least $455 per week (exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities),
And their work meets both of the following requirements:

1. Their primary duty consists of the performance of office or
Nonmanual work directly related to the management or general business
Operations of their employer or of their employer's customers. (See 29
C.F.R. §541.201.)

To meet the "work directly related to the management or general
business operations" standard, an employee must perform work directly
Related to assisting with the running or servicing of the business.

Examples include work in functional areas such as human resources;
Finance; accounting; auditing; insurance; quality control; purchasing;
Marketing; research; safety and health; employee benefits; labor
Relations; public relations; computer network, internet, and database
Administration; legal and regulatory compliance; and similar activities.(this is not a complete list but a sample of those included)

The regulations note that some of these activities may be performed by
Employees who also would qualify for another exemption.


This is only one of the exemptions, but it is the most widely used exemption.

Shirley

Yes, this would be called a misclassification. It would mean that you are not really exempt but have been misclassified as exempt.

You can file a claim with the Department of Labor if you feel you have been misclassified. They will investigate and if the classification is wrong it will be corrected.

The most generally used classification is the administrative classification.

Under the new regulations, workers are employed in an administrative
capacity if they are compensated on either a salary or fee basis at a rate
of at least $455 per week (exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities),
and their work meets both of the following requirements:

1. Their primary duty consists of the performance of office or
nonmanual work directly related to the management or general business
operations of their employer or of their employer's customers. (See 29
C.F.R. §541.201.)

To meet the "work directly related to the management or general
business operations" standard, an employee must perform work directly
related to assisting with the running or servicing of the business.

Examples include work in functional areas such as human resources;
finance; accounting; auditing; insurance; quality control; purchasing;
marketing; research; safety and health; employee benefits; labor
relations; public relations; computer network, internet, and database
administration; legal and regulatory compliance; and similar activities.(this is not a complete list but a sample of those included)

The regulations note that some of these activities may be performed by
employees who also would qualify for another exemption.


This is only one of the exemptions, but it is the most widely used exemption.

Shirley

Is the list of examples for non-exempt or exempt? Or does the non-exempt position need to be an assistant to one of these functions?

The list is the Administrative exemption only. There are other exemptions such as the executive, professional, computer, outside sales exemptions that come to mind.

This is the exempt employee but it was only one of the exemptions allowed.

Shirley