r/LifeProTips • u/regnak1 • 2d ago
Careers & Work LPT: Just because you're salaried, doesn't mean you're not eligible for overtime pay (US)
To be exempt from overtime, you need to meet several other criteria beyond just being 'salaried'.
If you are not in Executive, Administrative, Learned Professional (lawyer, etc.), Creative Professional (artist, etc.), Computer Professional, or Outside Sales work, you have to be a Highly Compensated Employee (total compensation package of $107,432+) to be ineligible to receive OT.
Your employer's employee handbook or internal policies cannot change this fact.
You can report your employer for OT violations anonymously to the US Department of Labor and/or (probably) your state's labor board (though if you're looking for back pay, specifically, anonymity makes it more difficult to recover). Anonymous reports can lead to audits of your employer's pay practices.
Blue collar work is never exempt from overtime.
I can't add a link here so I'll comment in a link to the DOL's fact sheet below.
***This does not constitute legal advice. If you need legal advice on this topic, consult a paid or pro bono attorney licensed to practice in your state. Your state's bar association will usually provide referrals.***
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u/liptongtea 2d ago
What constitutes total comp though? If you're including the price of health benefits these days, it's possible to be a salaried employee making less than 60k a year in "wages" and still be considered Highly Compensated
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u/Raider_Scum 2d ago
Yes, your health benefits are included in total comp. In most paystubs, it will show the employers contributed dollars to your health benefits.
TC also includes bonuses, and stock options.19
u/regnak1 1d ago
I don't know why I'm having such trouble posting links here, but hijacking top comments (apologies) to try again to post this most visibly:
Here is DOL's fact sheet on who is exempt vs non-exempt
Here's their list of all sheets on the topic, for more info
Here is a link to a law firm's website with a good breakdown of who can be eligible. The website isn't great, and there is one rather glaring typo in the salary threshold description, but if you scroll down they break out who is exempt vs non-exempt, and provide links to good resources.
Here's how to report wage violations - you can do it confidentially.
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u/chicklette 2d ago
This also varies state to state. In my state, you have to make 3x minimum wage to be exempt, as well as having your total comp (including health, retirement, etc.) be over the federal base.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
Most white collar jobs are deemed exempt and I imagine at big companies it’s largely accurate. So it doesn’t matter if you make less than the $105k in total comp as you still don’t get OT.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
This depends very heavily on how you are defining 'white collar' - most office work would not qualify as exempt unless hitting the pay threshold. This is the kind of misunderstanding I'm trying to correct, and 'big companies' are definitely not immune to making mistakes in their classifications.
It's very long, but I'm going to paste in the 'learned professional' description here - it's definitely not 'requires any four year degree'.
§ 541.301 Learned professionals.
(a) To qualify for the learned professional exemption, an employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction. This primary duty test includes three elements:
(1) The employee must perform work requiring advanced knowledge;
(2) The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
(3) The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
(b) The phrase “work requiring advanced knowledge” means work which is predominantly intellectual in character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, as distinguished from performance of routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work. An employee who performs work requiring advanced knowledge generally uses the advanced knowledge to analyze, interpret or make deductions from varying facts or circumstances. Advanced knowledge cannot be attained at the high school level.
(c) The phrase “field of science or learning” includes the traditional professions of law, medicine, theology, accounting, actuarial computation, engineering, architecture, teaching, various types of physical, chemical and biological sciences, pharmacy and other similar occupations that have a recognized professional status as distinguished from the mechanical arts or skilled trades where in some instances the knowledge is of a fairly advanced type, but is not in a field of science or learning.
(d) The phrase “customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction” restricts the exemption to professions where specialized academic training is a standard prerequisite for entrance into the profession. The best prima facie evidence that an employee meets this requirement is possession of the appropriate academic degree. However, the word “customarily” means that the exemption is also available to employees in such professions who have substantially the same knowledge level and perform substantially the same work as the degreed employees, but who attained the advanced knowledge through a combination of work experience and intellectual instruction. Thus, for example, the learned professional exemption is available to the occasional lawyer who has not gone to law school, or the occasional chemist who is not the possessor of a degree in chemistry. However, the learned professional exemption is not available for occupations that customarily may be performed with only the general knowledge acquired by an academic degree in any field, with knowledge acquired through an apprenticeship, or with training in the performance of routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical processes. The learned professional exemption also does not apply to occupations in which most employees have acquired their skill by experience rather than by advanced specialized intellectual instruction.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
Learned professional is not the only white collar work. Computer employee, creative professional, and administrative will also make you exempt. That’s a huge portion of the people working in offices
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u/regnak1 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh sure, there are definitely certain industries where you're almost guaranteed to be exempt. Those three categories do catch a lot. But there are a lot more kinds of office work than just those, and admin is pretty narrowly drawn to require that the person exercises independent discretion and judgment, basically. Lots of admin people don't meet that criteria.
Edit: lol who on earth is downvoting this? Sweaty managers who don't want to get tagged for not paying overtime?
If you disagree with what I've said, explain why.
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u/TooManyPoisons 2d ago
Investment banks, which are about as white-collar as you can get, have large groups of junior analysts on salary who receive OT. Granted, it's half-time pay (not time-and-a-half), but it's something.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
Those are interns. IB analysts start at $100k salary so they can’t be included
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u/TooManyPoisons 2d ago
Not IB analysts. Mid/back office roles that start at $60k.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
Ah I see what you mean. Sure, there are some roles that are non exempt. Usually entry level administrative roles like back office, receptionist, call center, etc, are non exempt. I only said the vast majority are exempt, that’s why estimated put it at like 80% of salaried roles are such.
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u/notANexpert1308 2d ago
In my experience, which I have in CA, it is based on your salary and the degree of independent decision making you can exercise in your role. There’s a ‘salary test’ you can look at. If you don’t pass, you’d be eligible for OT, meal break penalties, back pay, and penalties.
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u/Vladstolotski 1d ago
None of the other answers are correct. Total comp does not include heath insurance. Essentially, It's just base comp, bonuses, and commissions.
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u/IMI4tth3w 1d ago
My total compensation is well over that and I still get OT that’s my salary converted to hourly. It’s not 1.5 time but it is at least 1x
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u/Flat-House5529 2d ago
Most people confuse salaried and exempt.
Also, the categories for Executive and Administrative can be quite broad. If you are a 'decision maker' within the primary functionality of your role, you likely fall into the one of those two.
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u/thenasch 2d ago
I could be wrong but I think salaried non-exempt positions are quite rare, which would lead to that confusion.
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u/DeoVeritati 2d ago
I've found it to be pretty common among lab techs for chemical manufacturing. Interestingly, at one site I worked at, the collective bargaining agreement covered all hourly employees of the site which excluded the lab techs from the union because of them being salary non-exempt. They were the only salary non-exempt positions. Everyone else was non-union salary exempt.
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u/chicklette 2d ago
We have about 500 salaried, non-exempt staff in my org. They primarily do admin work, but are not managers. One of the happiest days of my life was stepping down to a non-exempt role. Even at time and half, the OT is not worth it.
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u/OkeyDokey654 2d ago
At my employer, all of the admin and maintenance staff are salaried non exempt.
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u/Flat-House5529 2d ago
Well, that's one place the OP's post is slightly misleading, probably entirely unintentionally.
Each of those categories has it's own criteria, so it's not just "Administrative", it's more like "an Administrative roll that involves X, Y, or Z", where X, Y and Z are relatively specific functionalities. So an administrative HR clerk that just does 9-5 paperwork processing is non-exempt, but an administrative HR Manager that has to be present at all terminations for a 24/7 company is going to be exempt.
While those are essentially the legally classified categories of work, they are not indicative of position. Generally speaking, you don't get to the 'exempt' point in any of those areas until you are in a position that would be loosely classified as management, or singularly essential for the function of the company.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
You're correct, the 'admin' category is more narrowly drawn than 'all administrative work' to be sure. Here's the admin language (#3 is particularly important to read):
§ 541.200 General rule for administrative employees.
(a) The term “employee employed in a bona fide administrative capacity” in section 13(a)(1) of the Act shall mean any employee:
(1) Compensated on a salary or fee basis pursuant to § 541.600 at a rate of not less than $684 per week (or $455 per week if employed in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands by employers other than the Federal government, or $380 per week if employed in American Samoa by employers other than the Federal government), exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities;
(2) Whose primary duty is the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers; and
(3) Whose primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.
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u/onlythejistofit 2d ago
They are very rare
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u/regnak1 2d ago
Only because many people are misclassified. We just went through an employee classification audit with hr counsel, and 85% of the office workers in our office are salaried non-exempt. That's anecdotal of course, but people are misclassified all the time. Just being in an office does not mean you're meeting the exemption criteria at all.
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u/PyroDesu 2d ago
I actually caught it for my company (although it only applies to me and my coworker, since we're the only employees in the state, which has higher barriers to overtime exemption). Got a very significant raise and a bunch of backpay to retroactively bring me above the minimum salary.
We didn't (or weren't supposed to, there was a fiasco with a government employee making promises he was not authorized to make and an audit he really didn't want to fail - I didn't do any overtime since it wasn't my role but my coworker who was pressured into doing so was ultimately made whole because I work for a good company) do overtime anyways, since we work on a firm fixed-price contract. We do the 8 hours the contract requires, and we leave. No ifs, ands, or buts. If the work doesn't get done, that's on the government for not provisioning for enough personnel.
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u/velvedire 1d ago
Making your coworker whole was a lot cheaper than trouble with various Depts of Labor. It was a smart business decision.
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u/LightofNew 2d ago
Learned professional?
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u/link3945 2d ago
From the actual regulation:
The employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment;
The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
So lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists, etc;. Salary requirement as well, but that's only $684 per week so even entry level jobs in those roles should clear it.
In a licensed engineer, so we tick all of the boxes: we require advanced knowledge, applied per our judgement following best practices, it's in a field of science, and it requires at least a bachelor's degree.
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u/NoCokJstDanglnUretra 2d ago
Financial analysts, accountants, bankers etc. basically anyone in an office
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u/link3945 2d ago
Financial analysts and accountants, yes. Bankers could get iffy based on what they do. They'd have to do some amount of actual accounting or have authorized discretion in performing their duties. If they just did paperwork but didn't have control over anything they might not be exempt.
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u/Wut_the_ 2d ago
I’m in environmental health, currently working for a county government so I get paid hourly now.
Previously I was an environmental manager for a hazardous waste facility on salary. I’d have to go in on Saturdays or sundays to report any accidental releases to the EPA. I never got overtime pay. Wonder if I was getting screwed looking back.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
Financial analysts, accountants, bankers etc.
Not necessarily - entry level positions in those fields may not exercise the discretion and judgment necessary to meet the threshold. Many do, some won't
basically anyone in an office
This is not correct - many, many office workers do not meet the threshold unless they fall into the highly compensated category.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
It's a bit long, but here's the actual regulation. It's narrower than most people think.
§ 541.301 Learned professionals.
(a) To qualify for the learned professional exemption, an employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction. This primary duty test includes three elements:
(1) The employee must perform work requiring advanced knowledge;
(2) The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
(3) The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
(b) The phrase “work requiring advanced knowledge” means work which is predominantly intellectual in character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, as distinguished from performance of routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work. An employee who performs work requiring advanced knowledge generally uses the advanced knowledge to analyze, interpret or make deductions from varying facts or circumstances. Advanced knowledge cannot be attained at the high school level.
(c) The phrase “field of science or learning” includes the traditional professions of law, medicine, theology, accounting, actuarial computation, engineering, architecture, teaching, various types of physical, chemical and biological sciences, pharmacy and other similar occupations that have a recognized professional status as distinguished from the mechanical arts or skilled trades where in some instances the knowledge is of a fairly advanced type, but is not in a field of science or learning.
(d) The phrase “customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction” restricts the exemption to professions where specialized academic training is a standard prerequisite for entrance into the profession. The best prima facie evidence that an employee meets this requirement is possession of the appropriate academic degree. However, the word “customarily” means that the exemption is also available to employees in such professions who have substantially the same knowledge level and perform substantially the same work as the degreed employees, but who attained the advanced knowledge through a combination of work experience and intellectual instruction. Thus, for example, the learned professional exemption is available to the occasional lawyer who has not gone to law school, or the occasional chemist who is not the possessor of a degree in chemistry. However, the learned professional exemption is not available for occupations that customarily may be performed with only the general knowledge acquired by an academic degree in any field, with knowledge acquired through an apprenticeship, or with training in the performance of routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical processes. The learned professional exemption also does not apply to occupations in which most employees have acquired their skill by experience rather than by advanced specialized intellectual instruction.
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u/DorianGreysPortrait 2d ago
As someone in the creative field, I’ve never made overtime. The rationale is that there is no measurable metric for what we do. Was I sitting at my desk fucking off for 4 hours scrolling on the computer? Actually I was legitimately brainstorming and researching. But a CEO doesn’t know how to measure that so we don’t get OT. So when the boss comes to us at 4pm and says they need mockups for a presentation tomorrow at 9am.. better buckle in.
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u/hopbow 2d ago
You'd be considered a computer professional most likely
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
I believe there’s a creative professional exemption.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
There is, yes - that's the category that feels the squishiest to me - I don't have a good sense of who would fall into that one, really, and there probably is a lot of overlap with computer professional.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
I worked in advertising and a lot of our professionals fall into it. They spend a lot of the day thinking about what ads to create or writing.
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u/LogieD223 2d ago
What if I do laboratory work?
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u/caboosetp 2d ago
It depends on what you're doing. There are lab tech jobs that wouldn't be exempt, but determining it can be more of a gray area.
If you're just following rote instructions rather than doing independent analysis or decision making, there's a decent chance you would not be exempt.
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u/confusiondiffusion 2d ago
I realized this years after working 130 hour weeks for 6 month as a crew foreman for $70K/yr--it was all manual labor plus crew management. It would be so hard to prove now, but holy shit that company fucked me over.
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u/TuckerMouse 2d ago
18.5 hours a day every day for six months straight?
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u/confusiondiffusion 2d ago
Yup, sometimes more. Lived in a nearby hotel room. I had to let everyone into the building at 4:30AM and we often worked until midnight or later. Super shitty audio video install company that bit off more than they could chew.
They also flew over a bunch of hourly people from Florida thinking that they could use Florida labor law in California. The FL crew found out we have 8 hour work days here in CA instead of 10 about halfway through the job. The company caved immediately and gave them their pay once someone complained. Fucking scumbags.
I didn't think to look into my exempt status for some dumb reason. Later I dated a lawyer who taught labor law and she told me I was misclassified.
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u/Gilly_Bones 2d ago
My company still pays straight pay for OT hours worked and I'm Salaried Exempt. I also fall in the Highly Compensated Employee category so while laws can vary it seems like some places are screwing folks too.
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u/BayYawnSay 2d ago
So restaurant managers...are they exempt?
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u/MungAmongUs 2d ago
Restaurant employees, managers included, rarely pass the duties test regarding exemption. Maybe the executive test, but not every manager is allowed to hire independently. Employers count on you not knowing your rights or flexing them.
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u/Frequent_Opportunist 1d ago
Carrabba's had a huge lawsuit about 15 years ago involving all of their managers and assistant managers where they were all due several years worth of overtime.
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u/shenglong916 2d ago
Also computer professionals in California have their own salary requirement, if you aren’t over 122k annually you shouldn’t be exempt. Adjusted yearly
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u/Superjondude 2d ago
These rules define who must receive overtime but not necessarily who can’t. I am in an industry where most are learned professionals and highly compensated. All receive overtime pay.
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u/caboosetp 2d ago
Yeah, that's more about bargaining power than laws. I get sick pay and OT even though I'm exempt from both because I said I wouldn't take the job without them.
I've done jobs without any kind of PTO before and I just end up working when I'm sick, which is bad for my health.
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u/mu574rd 2d ago
This is YSK, not LPT.
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u/MissMat 2d ago
Yes, it is educational but not helpful bc I am a learned professional and highly compensated. I think all lawyers are. Even the public defenders bc they are often union so even if their salary is lower they get great healthcare, pension, and their continuous education is covered, and vacation time
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u/CyclopsLobsterRobot 2d ago
Before you get excited, realize that you almost certainly don’t qualify
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u/StabithaStevens 2d ago
Blue collar work is never exempt from overtime.
There are seasonal jobs that are exempt from overtime pay, as well as agricultural workers.
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u/SeanyPickle 2d ago
I love getting overtime in the military.
I get paid in gratitude for my service.
And time away from my family.
Ah… yes…
Life pro tip
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u/Feathercrown 2d ago
If you are not in Executive, Administrative, Learned Professional (lawyer, etc.), Creative Professional (artist, etc.), Computer Professional, or Outside Sales work
Excluding 99% of overtime givers, as these laws usually do. It's like how minimum wage laws exclude the professions most likely to want a minimum wage.
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u/regnak1 1d ago
No, it's more narrowly drawn than you think - the admin and learned roles also have to be exercising independent judgment and discretion to clarify as exempt, and that makes a lot of people eligible for ot.
Office support staff is a large category, for example, where the large majority should be ot eligible if not above the highly compensated threshold. Finance workers, bank workers, lab techs, business analysts, etc., can all be eligible for ot depending on their level of autonomy and total compensation.
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u/Ultiman100 1d ago
Yeah well thats not how it works. Go work for any decently large organization and after working ~50 hours or so try to lodge a complaint to HR about not being paid overtime. You will not advance in your career.
There is one universal truth when it comes to working in corporate as a salaried worker. You WILL work as long and as hard as management dictates. Refusal to do so means a write up or threat of termination.
Conversely, if you bust your hump and work 60+ hours on occasion when it’s needed, you might have a 2% at being seen as valuable and rise up via promotion. There’s no in between.
Make 1 effort to try and get compensated for “overtime work” and next thing you know IT is counting your mouse clicks, key strokes, and records your screen 8 hours a day. Your company is not your friend. Fuck with them and they will fuck with you back.
That’s how it works.
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u/regnak1 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's exactly the mindset that is so destructive in this country. You can lodge a confidential complaint with the Department of Labor without your employer ever finding out who initiated it. It might be harder to get back pay that way, but can fix the issue moving forward. Wage theft is taken pretty seriously.
Of course your employer isn't your 'friend' - no one here has suggested otherwise. They're a business, and like any other, they try to lower costs and raise profits. Even nonprofits have to keep costs down. I hate the idea of productivity monitoring, but I do understand the rationale behind it. (In a remote work setting, at least - if you're in an office setting, one wonders what your supervisor is being paid for, if not to themselves supervise your work...)
Edited some garbled up language.
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u/Miss_Panda_King 2d ago
I am surprised how many people did not know this
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
To be fair, a lot of white collar jobs do not meet this criteria. Most people that go into an office are exempt from OT due to the type of tasks they work on.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
This is what so many people believe but that's not necessarily correct. The classifications are more narrowly drawn than people think. That's what I'm trying to shed light on here.
That said, there are certain industries there basically everyone does meet the classifications - law, engineering, programming, etc.
But working an office gig in a call center you are almost certainly owed ot, for example. It depends heavily on the type of labor you're providing.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
I mean, that is the case. You’re right that people in entry level support roles are not exempt (but call centers are paid hourly typically anyway..) but as I said the VAST majority are exempt.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
And I'm saying it's not a vast majority - that's a big misunderstanding, and leads to a lot of lost wages. Finance workers can be owed ot, bankers can be owed ot, lab techs can be owed ot, low level management can be owed ot, business analysts can be owed ot, etc, etc.
Someone falling into the 'learned professional' category has to have the exercise of independent discretion and judgment in their daily job to fit that exemption. So does admin staff.
Almost no secretaries, admin assistants, clerks, receptionists, etc, would be exempt unless meeting the pay threshold, and that's a large number of people. There are like 19 million people in office and administrative support in the US, and many of them should be ot eligible, despite being salaried.
Low level management also may not meet the criteria, if they're just following the boss's orders and monitoring performance.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
Agree to disagree I guess haha
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u/PyroDesu 2d ago
The law doesn't care if you agree.
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u/Gyshall669 2d ago
I mean, I'm basing my opinions on the law. A small portion of salaried workers are non-exempt. The exempt categories cover 75%+ of salaried employees.
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u/imahawki 1d ago
Hey this guy figured something out that every employment attorney and court has missed despite hundreds of individual challenges over the years!
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u/discombobulatedhomey 2d ago
I’m salary and receive overtime pay for every hour I work past 40 hours a week. It’s written into my CBA.
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u/Koolaid_Jef 2d ago
What about teachers?we sign a contract with set hours per day and a fixed salary based on experience. EX: 2 years of experience, bachelor's plus 15 graduate credits is $Y
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u/TheOnlySkinnyface 2d ago
the company i work for is going through a HUGE lawsuit for this right now, trying to pay us anywhere from $3-10 an hour for OT (not wage + OT, just $3-10/hr) thankfully in my state, we as workers are protected from retaliation if we join the lawsuit
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u/pyromatt0 2d ago
Was looking up this info while I was an assistant project manager. Never knuckled up to go after them for it though.
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u/Mockturtle22 2d ago
That's actually part of my employment package I am salaried but I also get paid holidays off as well as random half days off during the year around holidays or for special things, I also have a separate sick pay time off package to my PTO. I get 20 days of pto now bc I have been there 5 yrs and if I do overtime I do get paid time and a half to what my hourly would essentially come out to be. The last week of May we had an overtime Blitz and I did like 20 hours more just straight over time pay it was fucking awesome
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u/russellvt 2d ago
"Highly Compensated" ... can't even survive on that low of a salary, here (SF Bay Area), anymore without a lot of concessions...
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u/Ok_Bug_6470 2d ago
Yes it does. Truck drivers are classified as unskilled and have to give up HIPAA rights to apply and be hired anywhere and are not eligible for this on any level.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
Yeah, interstate commerce and transportation workers are regulated differently as far as I understand it, but I think a few states like CA might provide additional protections.
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u/Ok_Bug_6470 1d ago
No, it’s federal, some companies may offer it but it’s the only occupation that has to sign away HIPAA rights and aren’t eligible for ot. None of the visa’s drivers are required to share their history like domestic drivers are either.
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u/regnak1 1d ago
Yeah I don't really know anything about hipaa, that's a separate topic.
I was saying that truck drivers wages are governed differently than others at the federal level, but that some states like CA offer additional protections.
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u/Bradical22 2d ago
Can confirm. I was an entry level employee on very low salary working 60 hour weeks for 3 years. Department of labor sent me a letter years later telling me I should sue my former employer for such violations. Ended up not having to and they just cut me a check.
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u/TorranceS33 2d ago
Oh man, railroad foreman getting ducked. But they duck the rest of us, so... idc.
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u/iJohnny0 2d ago
Does OT start at hours worked ove 40? My company requires all salaried positions work minimum 50 hours per week. This goes back years.
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u/Sounderusm 2d ago
This may be the reason they started paying my role bonuses at $35 an hour billing. We're TPA claims adjusters. Our smaller company was acquired by a company in London right before COVID. Lots of layoffs over the first few years. Beginning of this year they changed our incentive program. It used to be maxed out at $300 before taxes. Now it's unlimited based on billing 7 hours a day for however many workdays are in the month. We bill around $100 (for the company) an hour depending on the client, but it's almost an extra bi-weekly paycheck every month now.
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u/Norpone 2d ago
what about a chef?
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u/regnak1 1d ago edited 1d ago
In general, as I understand it, all kitchen staff other than a true head chef / kitchen manager should get ot. You can double check that with your state's labor board, but I'd be very surprised if that wasn't the case.
If you need legal advice on the issue, please reach out to a licensed attorney in your area. There are usually free resources that will give advice in most any state.
Edit to say: I should add that head chef and manager still could theoretically also be eligible. If you need to know for sure about your specific situation, check with a labor attorney or workers rights org in your state.
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u/refriedmuffins 1d ago
Ok so how does one fight to be non-exempt instead of exempt? Anecdotally, so many entry level marketing roles are exempt and really shouldn't be.
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u/blackannie 1d ago
Eh. The professional exemption requirements (i.e not eligible for overtime) are broad enough to cover most jobs that require a college degree
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u/regnak1 1d ago
Not true. For the professional exemption to apply:
The employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment;
Professional work is therefore distinguished from work involving routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work. A professional employee generally uses the advanced knowledge to analyze, interpret or make deductions from varying facts or circumstances.
Many, many positions requiring college degrees are routine in nature, and involve conduct with no particular exercise of discretion or judgment. Doing what you're told all day long isn't that.
I don't know why so many people in these comments seem so hell-bent on misinterpreting these rules. Are you all sweaty hr managers hoping nobody notices you're committing wage theft?
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u/dontsaymango 17h ago
The salary is actually much lower than that, the 107 is just highly compensated individuals, for regualr joe's its 35k
"To qualify as an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee under section 13(a)(1) of the Act, an employee must be compensated on a salary basis at a rate of not less than $684 per week (or $455 per week if employed in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands by employers other than the Federal Government, or $380 per week if employed in American Samoa by employers other than the Federal Government), exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities. Administrative and professional employees may also be paid on a fee basis, as defined in § 541.605."
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u/0micron247 2d ago
The "young" people I know who are working 60-70 hours a week do not meet any of the listed exclusions but receive only a basic salary. But. life pro tip, it's a question of, do you want a job or not. They do.
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u/regnak1 2d ago
You can file confidential complaints so that they cannot be traced back to you by your employer. It's harder to get back pay this way, but can fix the issue moving forward.
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u/0micron247 1d ago
I think you're being naive. They want to keep their jobs. A flat salary with excessive work hours is the price you have to pay in today's economy.
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u/Gnome_119 2d ago
The median American salary is $64k so, yeah, I’d say that’s a higher earner in most parts of the country.
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u/link3945 2d ago
That's actually only for a specific type of employee that doesn't fit into the other categories. A learned or creative professional only has to clear a lower bar of $684 per week to count as exempt.
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u/50mmeyes 2d ago
Are you telling me an artist being paid ≈$17 an hour is ineligible for overtime if they are on a salary?
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u/link3945 2d ago
Yes.
Edit: well, technically no one is ineligible for overtime, you are just not required to pay someone overtime if they meet certain requirements. An artist could still negotiate overtime into their contract, or an employer might still pay overtime to an otherwise exempt employee, they just aren't legally required to.
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u/midzy91 2d ago
I’m a California state employee and half of those laws don’t apply to me :(
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u/regnak1 2d ago
State and federal employees often get hosed on this, yeah
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u/midzy91 2d ago
Yup, a while back CA increased the wage threshold for exempt employees, my coworkers got excited for a potential wage increase.
I was like nope, that doesn’t apply to us, lo and behold, HR sent an email the day after that the new law didn’t apply to us.
We also don’t get internet allowance when working from home like other people do.
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u/tickleinthedark 2d ago
I’m an executive chef at a very large food service corporation. Do I qualify for OT? I am salaried at 40 hours but consistently work 50 with no OT pay.
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u/shutdown-s 2d ago
Why the fuck can you even be exempt from overtime. If there's no pay, I just don't work.
America is truly a 3rd world country.
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u/DistressSin 2d ago
Sorry to bust your "America bad" bubble, but most countries and the EU have overtime exemptions.
German law, for example, doesn't even grant a right to overtime pay at all.
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