Exempt Employees

Employers have been known to misclassify an employee as exempt in order to avoid paying the employee overtime wages. This technique is deceptive and is against the provisions of the California labor laws. Our law firm has extensive experience in investigating and pursuing wage and hour claims against employers who have violated the law in the misclassification of employees.

Exempt Versus Nonexempt

Under California law, employees classified as exempt are generally salaried employees who are exempt from receiving specific meal and rest periods or overtime wages.

Employees classified as exempt generally must fall under one of three categories:

• Management;
• Professional; or
• Administrative

All other employees are given a nonexempt status – meaning they are paid hourly and are not exempt from overtime or meal and rest periods.

Employee Misclassifications

Employers frequently misclassify an employee as exempt in order to force unpaid overtime. This is commonly achieved by giving an employee a title as a manager or supervisor (or other position with exempt status) when the individual in fact does not manage anyone.

In order to be considered a manager under California law, usually:

1. The employee must manage at least two other employees ,and
2. More than 50 percent of the employee's job duties must be managerial.and
3. The employee must receive a salary of at least double the minimum wage, which is currently $15.50 per hour, thus equaling at least $23,25 per hour.

Other commonly misclassified employees include:

• Construction workers;
• Sales representatives;
• Non–licensed engineers;
• Technical writers;
• Commissioned workers with poorly defined commission plans; and
• Other workers who are misclassified as professionals.

The growing trend is for the Courts, the Labor Commissioner the IRS and the EDD to find employees to be non-exempt.

Contact Us

If you believe you have been misclassified as exempt when you should have a nonexempt status, contact us now at (310) 274-8216. We will fight for your rights.