Your Rights Under the FLSA
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to classify their workers as either exempt or non-exempt from overtime and minimum wage requirements. All non-exempt employees must be paid at least the minimum wage, plus overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week.
Exempt employees are supposed to be white collar workers in professional or management roles who make over a certain salary threshold. However, employers will sometimes try to miscategorize employees as exempt who shouldn’t be, in order to avoid having to pay minimum wage and overtime. If they do that, they may be in violation of the law.
If you suspect your employer may be misclassifying you, here are a few questions to ask.
Are You Paid Hourly?
Outside of certain specific exceptions, exempt employees are usually paid a monthly salary that isn’t based on the number of hours they work. As of this writing, exempt employees cannot be paid less than $684 per week on a salaried basis.
If you receive hourly pay and your employer says you’re an exempt employee, they may be misclassifying you.
Are Your Duties High-Level?
Sometimes managers don’t realize that to qualify as exempt, an employee can’t just make more than the baseline pay requirement. They also have to pass a duties test. Most exempt employees fall under executive, administrative, or professional functions, and their duties have to line up.
For instance, if an employee is classified as “executive,” they should have...
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