Bob Tollen Published in Employer's Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act "The Ground Rules for Applying the FLSA Exemptions"

Bob Tollen’s article, “The Ground Rules for Applying the FLSA Exemptions,” was published in the April 2008 issue of Employer’s Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act. In his article, Bob highlights the five most common exemptions from the minimum wage and overtime requirements for employees, and why it is important for HR administrators and other managers responsible for deciding an employee’s exemption status to understand the ground rules of the FLSA.

Bob notes that the “five most common exemptions are: the executive exemption; the administrative exemption; the professional exemption; the exemption for computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers and similarly skilled workers in the computer field; and the exemption for outside salespersons.” He further points out that, “Aside from the monetary tests, the types of employees qualifying for each of the exemptions are dramatically different.” Bob concludes that, “No one should ever attempt to classify employees as exempt without knowing the differences among the exemptions and without identifying the specific exemption in which a particular exempt employee belongs.”