Exception #2: Your employer does not have to pay you according to the FLSA if you are considered "exempt," which means you are not covered by the law. Exempt employees include:

• Employees in executive, administrative, and professional positions (including teachers and academic administrative personnel in elementary and secondary schools); employees who work in outside sales; and employees in certain computer-related occupations;
• Employees of certain seasonal amusement or recreational establishments; employees of certain small newspapers; seamen employed on foreign vessels; employees engaged in fishing operations; and employees engaged in newspaper delivery;
• Farm workers employed on small farms;
• Casual babysitters and persons employed as companions to the elderly or infirm.

However, some state wage laws do not recognize or allow some of these federal exemptions. So, in addition to learning your state's minimum wage, you should also review your state's exemptions that correspond to your job classification.

Four Ways Employers Try To Get Around The Law

1. Your employer includes you in the category of "salaried exempt personnel". Employers don't have to follow the federal Fair Labor Standards Act if you fall into the category of "salaried exempt personnel." Your employer may designate specific workers as exempt or non-exempt under the executive, administrative and professional employee exemption. For you to be considered "salaried," you must receive your full salary for any workweek in which you perform any work regardless of the number of days or hours worked. Further, your job duties and responsibilities must meet certain tests. Plus, you must be paid a salary that is not less than the amounts spelled out in the FLSA. (As a side note, the Secretary of Labor has established both a long and short test for each exemption.)

For example, to qualify as an exempt "executive" employee:

• You must receive a minimum salary of $155 per week to satisfy the long test — or you must receive a minimum salary of $250 per week to satisfy the short test;
• You must manage two or more full-time employees;
• You must have the authority to hire and fire employees;
• You must have management as your primary duty;
• You must regularly use discretionary powers; and,
• You must not devote more than 20% of your time to non-management activities (40% in retail and service establishments).

• interview, select and train employees;
  
• set and adjust rates of pay and hours of work;
  
• direct other employees' work;
• evaluate an employee's productivity and efficiency and to recommend promotions;
• handle employee complaints and discipline employees when necessary; and,
• provide for the safety of employees and their property.

2. Your employer incorrectly classifies you as "exempt" and then gives you a managerial job title. Companies try to get around paying employees overtime wages by classifying employees who should be covered by the law as exempt and then giving them a "managerial" job title. This doesn't always work, however, because your job title and job description do not control whether you are an exempt employee. Instead, your duties — the things you actually do at work — control whether your position is exempt from the law.

For example, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recently investigated a Massachusetts corporation with 300 retail baseball hat stores located throughout the United States to see if the company complied with the FLSA. The government found that certain store managers who were often required to work more than 40 hours a week while being paid a straight salary were improperly classified by the company as being exempt from coverage under the FLSA even though they held the title of "store manager." As a result, on February 28, 2000, the company agreed to pay 649 employees over $246,000 in back wages for the federal overtime violations.

3. Your employer incorrectly calculates the number of hours you work each week. Another area the government looks into is whether the company accurately calculates the number of hours you work each week. The Wage and Hour Division has established that the number of hours you work includes

• all the time your employer requires you to be on duty — on the company's premises — or at your prescribed work place, and
• all the time your employer permits you to work for the employer. Work that the employer does not require but permits is considered work time.

Get Paid For All the Hours You Work (Cont'd)