Here’s something that surprises most workers: getting paid a salary doesn’t automatically mean you’re not entitled to overtime. That misconception costs employees thousands of dollars every year in wages they’ve actually earned but never collected. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets up specific tests to figure out whether you qualify for overtime pay, and your job title isn’t one of them.
What Makes An Employee Exempt
The FLSA carves out exemptions from overtime rules for certain white-collar jobs. But you can’t just slap an exempt label on someone and call it done. Three separate tests have to be satisfied.
First, most exempt employees need to earn at least $684 per week on a salary basis. That’s the baseline. Second, they’ve got to receive that predetermined amount each pay period, no matter how many hours they work or how well they perform. Third, their main job duties must fit into one of these buckets: executive, administrative, professional, computer employee, or outside sales. Giving someone a fancy manager title and paying them a salary doesn’t create an exemption. Take a retail assistant manager who spends most of their shift stocking shelves and working the register. They’re probably not exempt, even with that manager badge. What you actually do at work matters way more than what your business card says.
The Salary Basis Test Explained
Salary basis means you get the same paycheck each period. Your employer can’t dock your pay based on the quality of your work or reduce it because you only worked 35 hours instead of 40. There are some exceptions. Full-day absences for personal reasons? Those can be deducted under certain conditions. The same goes for sick days in some situations. But here’s where employers mess up: if they start cutting your pay for partial-day absences or because they didn’t like your performance that week, they’ve just destroyed the salary basis. The whole exemption falls apart. You’ll never qualify as exempt under most white-collar exemptions if you’re paid hourly. Doesn’t matter what you do or how much you make. The salary requirement is foundational.
Primary Duties Requirements
The duties test looks at what takes up most of your time at work. For executive exemptions, you need to regularly supervise at least two other employees. And you’ve got to have real input into hiring and firing decisions, not just make recommendations that get ignored.
Administrative exemptions require office work that’s directly tied to running the business or managing general operations. You also need to exercise real discretion on significant matters. Filing paperwork all day doesn’t count. Professional exemptions cover work requiring advanced knowledge in science or learning that typically comes from prolonged specialized education. Computer professionals must handle systems analysis, programming, software engineering, or similar technical work. Outside sales employees spend most of their time away from the office making sales or getting orders.
Common Misclassification Scenarios
Some industries get this wrong constantly:
- Restaurant assistant managers spend their shifts cooking and serving tables
- Retail supervisors whose main job is helping customers, not managing employees
- Administrative assistants are called exempt, but doing routine clerical tasks all day
- Commission salespeople who work inside the store or office most of the time
- Management trainees who stock shelves for a year while being promised future advancement
These misclassifications usually happen because employers want to avoid paying overtime. It’s not about properly applying FLSA standards. When your Coral Gables Wages and Overtime Lawyer looks at your case, they’re examining what fills up your actual workday. Not the job description HR wrote when they posted the position.
How Classification Affects Your Pay
Non-exempt employees get overtime at time and a half for anything over 40 hours in a workweek. That adds up fast, especially in jobs where long hours are standard. Exempt employees? They get their salary whether they work 35 hours or 65 hours that week. Some employers deliberately get the classification wrong to save money. According to the Department of Labor, wage and hour violations rank among the most common employment law problems in the country. That’s not an accident.
What To Do If You’re Misclassified
Think your employer got your classification wrong? Start documenting everything. Write down what you actually do each day. Save emails about your responsibilities. Keep your schedules. Hang onto anything that describes what your job really involves. At Exhibit G Law Firm we look at your situation and tell you whether you’ve got grounds for a wage claim. This matters because misclassified workers can sometimes recover back pay for up to three years of unpaid overtime. Liquidated damages can effectively double that amount. You’re also protected from retaliation for standing up for your wage rights.
Protecting Your Right To Fair Pay
Understanding whether you’re correctly classified isn’t just about technicalities. It’s about getting paid fairly for the work you’re doing. If you’re putting in 50 or 60-hour weeks without overtime pay, something might be wrong with how your employer has categorized your position. Working more than 40 hours a week without seeing overtime on your paycheck? It’s worth having a conversation with a Coral Gables Wages and Overtime Lawyer to find out if you’re entitled to additional compensation for those hours. Contact us today.