The short answer is: maybe. The issue is whether you are an exempt or non-exempt employee, and that is not determined simply by whether you are paid on a salary basis.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and other laws generally require that employers pay employees overtime for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. For each hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week, the employer is required to pay the employee at a wage rate of 1 ½ times the employee’s regular rate of pay.
However, certain specific categories of employees are not entitled to overtime pay. They are “exempt” from overtime pay requirements. The most common exemptions are the: executive exemption; administrative exemption; learned professional exemption; the exemption for certain computer employees; and the outside salesperson exemption. Although the employee generally must be paid on a salary basis for any of these exemptions to apply (except for the outside salesperson exemption), payment on a salary basis alone is insufficient for the exemption to apply.
Instead, determination as to whether any of these exemptions applies is based on the specific duties that the employee primarily performs and whether the employee performs exempt duties with a sufficient degree of regularity. This determination can be complicated. The requirements for each exemption to apply are very fact specific and must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
It is clear, however, that an exemption will not apply merely because the employee is paid on a salary basis. Similarly, an employee’s job title alone does not determine whether an exemption applies. Thus, for example, you may be entitled to overtime even if your job title contains the word “manager” or “administrator.” In addition, you may be a non-exempt employee entitled to overtime pay even if some of the duties you perform are exempt duties such as duties directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer. That is because the exempt duties must be your primary duties and you must perform them with a sufficient degree of regularity for the exemption to apply.
If you believe that you may be incorrectly classified as exempt and entitled to overtime pay or that you are otherwise not being paid the wages you are owed, contact Higgins Law Firm, LLC. We have helped numerous clients obtain the money they earned.