California Law on Exempt Employees
The California Labor Laws require employees to meet certain requirements. They include the provision of rest breaks, paying overtime and or tracking hours. However, there are jobs that are exempt from such requirements. People that earn a living from such jobs can be classified as exempt employees. Such people are not subject to either one or more sets of California wage and hour laws.
The Requirements
For a California employee to be classified as an exempt employee, he or she must meet a certain threshold. It is only when they meet this threshold that they qualify to be “exempt” from rest breaks, minimum wage, and overtime. To start with, their job duties should involve making independent decisions and use of discretion.
Another requirement of an exempt employee is that their duties should be executive, administrative or professional. Most people will simply refer to such duties as white-collar duties. The last requirement that meets the threshold of an exempt employee is that his or her salary should be at least twice as much as California’s minimum wage. (Full-time employment wage.)
Job Titles With Exemptions
Other types of jobs with an exemption include private school teachers, outside salespersons, computer professionals, surgeons and physicians, commissioned employees and union employees. A simple way of determining if one is an exempt employee is by answering the question: “is the employee paid on an hourly basis or does he or she have a monthly salary?”
If the employee has a salary, then he or she is an exempt employee. It is important to keep in mind that such salary is always predetermined and will not change depending on the number of hours one has worked.
A fancy job title does not in any way qualify one to be an exempt employee. Employees that devote more than 50% of their working time managing or running a business are exempt employees. Such employees have a responsibility in finance sections, accounting, research, government relations, quality control, database administration, human resources and quality compliance.
Exempt employees have a primary duty of managing an entire business or at least one of its departments. Note that if an exempt employee shows up for work but there is no job for him or her to do, he or she is still entitled to a payment. Another characteristic of an exempt employee is that they can hire and fire other employees at their discretion. They also direct the work of other employees.
Labor Commissioner
When the Labor Commissioner wants to determine if one is an exempt employee, he or she will look into the employee’s duties during workweeks. If they fit the above criteria, then the employee qualifies to as an exempt employee. Exempt employees are rarely supervised directly.
Other employees that can be categorized as exempt employees are learned professionals with advanced knowledge acquired by specialized and prolonged study, licensed professional like architects, lawyers, and engineers. In case an employer finds it hard to determine whether an employee is nonexempt or exempt, they can make use of exempt/nonexempt wizard and nonexempt and exempt forms and checklists.
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