Federal law says most workers earn time and a half for every hour past 40 in a workweek. But the law carves out exemptions for certain executive, administrative and professional jobs. If your employer calls you exempt, you get a flat salary and no overtime — no matter how many hours you work.
The catch: not every salaried worker is exempt. An exemption depends on both a salary test and a duties test. Miss either one, and you may be owed back overtime pay. Here is how the rules work, in plain language.
What is overtime, and who earns it?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a covered, non-exempt employee must earn at least 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek. As Wikipedia's overview of overtime explains, overtime laws exist to discourage employers from forcing excessively long hours, and a typical worker logging 48 hours is paid the equivalent of 52 hours of work.
The key unit is the workweek, not the day. An overtime calculator guide from US-Calculator describes a workweek as a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods — that does not have to start on Monday. Hours from two different workweeks cannot be averaged together to dodge overtime. Federal law also requires no extra pay for weekends or holidays as such, and no daily overtime.
Some states go further. California, for example, requires overtime for hours over 8 in a workday and double time for hours over 12, according to the state's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement as cited by US-Calculator. Where state law is more generous, the state rule applies.
What are the overtime exemptions?
The FLSA exempts several categories of workers from overtime — and, in some cases, from minimum wage rules. The major ones are the so-called "white collar" exemptions: This connects to our earlier piece, Lawsuit says the EEOC stopped hearing federal workers' class cases.
- Executive — the primary duty is managing the enterprise or a recognized department, and the worker directs the work of others.
- Administrative — the primary duty is office work related to management or general business operations, exercising independent judgment on significant matters.
- Professional — work requiring advanced knowledge in a science or field of learning, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers, plus certain creative professionals.
There are also narrower exemptions for certain outside sales employees, computer workers and others. Each one has its own rules, so the details matter.
How do the salary and duties tests work?
To qualify as exempt under the white collar exemptions, a worker generally must pass two tests. The salary test sets a minimum weekly pay level. The duties test looks at what the person actually does on the job — not their job title.
Both tests must be met. A fancy title alone never makes anyone exempt. A manager who spends most of the week running a register or stocking shelves may fail the executive duties test even with "supervisor" on the badge.
Here is the most common myth, and the clearest mistake employers make: a salary does not cancel overtime. Many salaried workers are still non-exempt and owed overtime. As US-Calculator puts it, exemption depends on meeting both the salary test — currently $684 a week under the federal rule — and the duties test, not on how you are paid. A worker earning less than that weekly salary floor generally cannot be classified as exempt under the white collar exemptions at all.
How can you tell if you are misclassified?
Start with two questions. First, how much do you make? Compare your weekly pay against the federal salary floor. Second, what do you actually do all day? Write down your main tasks and who, if anyone, you direct. If your pay is below the floor, or your duties look nothing like managing, high-level office work or learned professional work, the exemption may not fit.
Watch for these red flags:
- You are salaried, work regular overtime hours, and your duties are mostly routine or manual.
- Your title sounds senior but you have little real authority over hiring, firing or how work gets done.
- Your employer offers "comp time" instead of overtime pay. Under the FLSA, comp time in place of cash is available only to state and local government employees. Most private-sector non-exempt workers must be paid overtime in cash, in the workweek the hours were worked.
- Your paycheck shows no overtime even in weeks you clearly worked more than 40 hours.
Enforcement is real. The Labor Department recently recovered 613,037 dollars for 46 gyro restaurant workers in a wage case, a reminder that back-pay claims add up fast when hours go unpaid. Our report on the gyro restaurant wage recovery walks through how that case worked. Readers following this should also see Labor Department recovers 613,037 dollars for 46 gyro restaurant workers.
What should you do if you think you are owed overtime?
Practical steps, in order:
- Keep your own record of hours worked each week, along with pay stubs and your job description.
- Figure out your regular hourly rate. If a fixed salary is meant to cover a standard 40-hour week, divide the weekly salary by 40, then multiply overtime hours by 1.5 times that rate, as the US-Calculator guide shows.
- Raise the question with your employer or HR in writing. Classification mistakes are sometimes honest ones.
- If that goes nowhere, you can file a complaint with the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, which enforces the FLSA.
- Consider talking to an employment lawyer before signing anything that waives past wage claims.
This article explains the rules in general terms. It is not legal advice, and classification disputes turn on facts that only a review of your actual job can settle.
Where the rules are headed
The salary thresholds and duties tests sit inside a larger body of labor law that agencies and courts keep reshaping. Wage enforcement, rulemaking and litigation move together, and a change in one often signals movement in the others. Our labor law section tracks those shifts, and the legal news desk covers the day's filings and agency actions as they land.
The bottom line for workers: overtime rights are the default, not the exception. An employer claiming an exemption bears the burden of fitting the job inside it. If the fit is loose, the hours may be worth real money.
