There exists a Fair Labor Standards Act that regulates a federally set minimum wage and overtime pay regulation for all nonexempt workers in the U.S. However, some workers are exempt from this regulation and deciphering who is not protected by the statute can cause a due amount of confusion on the part of workers and those employing them. This begs the question, who is exempt from FLSA regulated pay protection, and why?
In the case of most professions, an employee may be deemed exempt if they can affirm three facts to be true. Does the worker make at least $455 each week or $23,600 annually? Does the worker get paid on a salary basis? Does the employee perform any exempt duties on the job?
To answer the final question, it is important to know what duties are considered to be exempt. Those are divided across three job types, professional, executive and administrative.
Professional level job duties are those done by registered nurses, doctors, lawyers, architects and similar employees, using advanced training and education to perform the jobs they do.
Executive level job duties that render an employee exempt are those of employees who are considered bosses, with hiring and firing discretion over other employees and who are predominantly performing management duties.
Finally, administrative duties performed rendering an employee exempt are using personal discretion to make determinations that are of significant weight for a company, their functions are typically clerical rather than manual and are intricately involved with the employer’s customers and operations at a much higher level than that of a clerical worker.
If you have concerns regarding your wages and overtime and believe you have either erroneously or intentionally been misclassified as an exempt employee when in fact you are not, you may benefit from speaking with a wage and hour attorney in Indiana. An attorney can file a claim on your behalf to help you receive the compensation you deserve and are owed, and protect you from any fallout for doing so.
