Salaried Employees

Employees who are on salary are called exempt employees. That means the employee is not entitled to overtime or exempt from overtime. It doesn’t matter how many hours the employee works per day or per week. The employee is not paid by the hour but paid a certain amount each pay period regardless of how many hours they work.

There are four basic categories and employer can make you exempt. All of the categories require the employee to make at least double the minimum wage. The categories are the following:

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The Administrative exemption

This is the most commonly used exemption and the most abused. These are employees who perform office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations or who work in the administration of a school system, who customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment, who assist a proprietor or bona fide executive or administrator, who perform only under general supervision, and whose salary is no less than twice the minimum wage.

The Executive Exemption

These employees responsibilities involve the management of the enterprise, who direct the work of two or more other employees, who have the authority to hire or fire other employees or effectively recommend hiring and firing, who customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment, who are primarily engaged in these duties, and whose salary is no less than twice the minimum wage.

The Professional Exemption

These employees who are licensed and certified by the state in one of eight recognized professions (law, medicine, dentistry, optometry, architecture, engineering, teaching, and accounting) or who are primarily engaged in a learned or artistic profession), who exercise discretion and independent judgment, and whose salary is no less than twice the minimum wage; however, pharmacists and registered nurses are not exempt professional employees, unless they individually meet the criteria for exempted executive or administrative employees.

Computer Worker Exemption

Must make $50.00 per hour as of January 1, 2022
The worker must spend at least 50% of his/her time doing one or more of the following:
Applying systems-analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software, or system-functional specifications.

We have found that more than 65% of the exempt workforce has been misclassified. That means most people who believe they are salaried are owed unpaid overtime. Some employees are owed tens of thousands of dollars in back overtime that has been adding up for years.

If you believe you were misclassified and not paid overtime because you were called a salaried employee, you should contact our office immediately.