Employers can get tripped up by the seemingly nebulous requirements of the administrative exemption from overtime that’s in the Fair Labor Standards Act, but they can ensure their review is concrete with a cautious approach that uses comprehensive questions and solid recordkeeping, attorneys say.
Two key requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s administrative exemption are that an employee’s so-called “primary duty” must involve office or nonmanual work related to general business operations and the employee must exercise “discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance” as part of their main duty.
Here, Law360 offers five tips employers can use to determine if their employees pass the test.
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Justin Swartz, partner at worker-side firm Outten & Golden LLP, said it’s a red flag when an employer tries to apply the exemption to hundreds of employees.
“… Even the biggest companies don’t need hundreds or thousands of people to make the kinds of decisions and exercise the kind of judgment that the administrative exemption requires,” he said.
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