[co-author: Leah Shepherd]

On February 11, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that recruiters for an information technology staffing firm were entitled to overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court reasoned that the recruiters should not be classified as administrative exempt because they did production work, not administrative work, and did not exercise sufficient discretion in important business matters.

Quick Hits

• A federal district court recently concluded that IT recruiters for a staffing firm qualified for overtime pay because they did not fall within the FLSA’s administrative exemption.
• The court relied on the administrative/production dichotomy, which distinguishes nonexempt workers who produce and sell a company’s goods and services from exempt workers who administer the business.
• The court also concluded that the job duties of the recruiters did not rise to the level of using independent judgment in significant business matters.

The FLSA stipulates that employees are exempt from overtime if they are “employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity.” To qualify as administrative exempt, an employee must:

• be compensated on a salary or fee basis at more than $684 per week,
• primarily perform office or nonmanual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers, and
• exercise discretion and independent...

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