The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes guidelines for documenting work hours and rules for paying exempt and non-exempt employees.
The FLSA provides a minimum wage and overtime exemption for employees in the following fields/positions:
- Executive
- Administrative
- Professional
- Outside Sales
- Computer-related occupations
However, job titles alone do not determine exempt status. The employee’s specific job duties and salary have to meet the requirements set by the Department of Labor.
In California, Exempt Employees are not entitled to overtime pay. Instead, they are salaried and expected to finish the tasks required of them. Regardless of whether it takes 30 hours or 50 to complete.
However, an Exempt Employee in California must be paid at least twice the minimum wage of a full-time employee. This amount varies depending on the local minimum wage and whether you have more than 25 employees. But, for most of California, this amount is no less than $60,000 annually.
Non-Exempt Employees must be paid overtime (one and a half times their hourly rate) for any hours worked beyond 8 hours a day and 40 hours per week.
If you need help calculating salary in your area, please reach out to Pooja Patel at ppatel@dpalaw.com.