Employment Exempt

The primary difference in status between exempt and non-exempt employees is their eligibility for overtime. Under federal law, that status is determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime, while non-exempt employees are.

What Is a Non-Exempt Employee? Non-exempt employees are workers who are entitled to earn the federal minimum wage and qualify for overtime pay, which is calculated as one-and-a-half times their hourly rate, for every hour they work, above and beyond a standard 40-hour workweek.

Examples of non-exempt employees include contractors, freelancers, interns, servers, retail associates and similar jobs. Even if non-exempt employees earn more than the federal minimum wage, they still take direction from supervisors and do not have administrative or executive positions.

Further, the FLSA regulations clearly state that executive or administrative assistants will only qualify as exempt if they assist business owners or senior executives of large organizations. Thus, if the administrative employee is one of several assistants in the office performing general administrative duties and

An exempt employee is not entitled overtime pay by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These salaried employees receive the same amount of pay per pay period, even if they put in overtime hours. A nonexempt employee is eligible to be paid overtime for work in excess of 40 hours per week, per federal guidelines.

Managers generally are exempt from overtime compensation under state and federal wage and hour laws. However, it is important to remember that it is job duties and not job titles that determine whether or not an employee actually is exempt from this important source of increased compensation.

Salary level test. Employees who are paid less than $23,600 per year ($455 per week) are nonexempt. (Employees who earn more than $100,000 per year are almost certainly exempt.)

In general, the office manager is often responsible for and credited with keeping the entire office running smoothly. Because of that, the position is often classified as exempt from overtime.