Exempt or Not?

JudyRoy

We have a fundraising position here at our non-profit. A great majority of her work is clerical with some public contact on upcoming fundraising events. Right now we have an hourly employee in the position. She is leaving and an employee who is presently exempt will be taking over the fundraising position. HR wants to make this an exempt position. Is it really an exempt position or not?

HR in PA

Are the job duties changing? Are the exempt person's responsibilities being added to the job description? If they are not, then the position is still non-exempt. (That is assuming it was classified correctly as a non-exempt position in the first place.) There is a list of criteria that determines whether or not a position is exempt or non-exempt. It isn't a personal choice.

System

If you're an Employment Law Letter subscriber, you can find lots of resources in the subscribers' area of this website that walk you through the tests for exempt employees. I like the Special Report "Defusing the Overtime Bomb: How to Comply with the FLSA," free to subscribers online.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Pork

You can also get for free a very handy reference booklet from your regional Department of Labor office it is: Regulation Part 541 Defining the terms-Executive, Administrative, Professional and Outside Sales which just happen to be the Exempt catagories for normally salaried personnel. These are exempt from the FLSA and all of the rules pertaining thereof. Also there is Part 785 Hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, As Amended. These two booklets are at my desk drawer all the time; whenever the questions come up I pull out the booklets and review the particular paragraphs and the smart guidelines carried therein. Other managers and department heads have seen me reading the law and now turn to me before the act rather than after the act of doing something wrong in my field of expertise and concern. it feels real good as the HR to set them straight and to then win cases that here to before were lost or not fought at all. Good luck Pork.