Human Resource Blog

exempt / non-exempt??

If someone is paid hourly on paper and gets paid the same amount every week, but does not clock in or out, but is paid over time is that considered salery? or how does that fall?

This describes a non-exempt employee. A salaried employee can be either exempt or non-exempt under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, based on his or her job duties. Exempt employees fall into 5 categories: Administrators, Executives, Outside Sales, Computer Pros and Professionals (like doctors and lawyers.) Exempt employees are never entitled to overtime, regardless of how many hours they work in a payroll week. All other salaried employees are non-exempt.

Any employee can be paid by salary — but that does not automatically make the employee exempt. Often, employers put workers on salary simply to make processing payroll easier — espeically when employees usually work the same schedule every week. However, if the non-exempt salaried employee works more than 40 hours in the payroll week, he or she must be paid overtime. By the same token, if then non-exempt employee works fewer than 40 hours in the payroll week, he or she can be paid less.

The FLSA requires that employers keep accurate records of all hours worked by non-exempt employees. The timeclock is the most common way of doing so, however, it is not the only permissible way of keeping payroll records. An employer can use computer log-in times, signed payroll sheets or another method to track hours worked accurately. The fact that an employee is not using a timeclock does not in and of itself establish exempt or non-exempt status.

Finally, even when an employees job duties qualify as exempt, paying the employee on an hourly basis (including paying overtime) make the employee non-exempt.