For an Executive exemption- what is the measure for “particular weight in the definition “employee’s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees must be given particular weight?”

For an Administrative exemption- what is the measure for discretion, independent judgement, and matters of significance, in the definition “The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance?”

For the Professional exemption- what is the measure for advanced knowldege, and what qualifies as a prolonged course of specialized instruction in the definition “The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; the advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and the advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction?”

For the Creative professional exemption- what is the measure for a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor in the definition “The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor?”

By the time you get any “clarification” from the department and check out all the “fact sheets” you find you just don’t know until you get a judgement that the position is NOT exempt. If the federal or state government wants compliance, they should be able to give a judgement BEFORE a complaint is filed. But that is not how the government works. If they didn’t levy fines, then how would they pay for their “decision making process?” The system is totally arbitrary with few true definititive standards.

I would agree. However, if your supervision only meets with you annually for evaluations to tell you what didn’t get done or to criticize the manner you got things done, then I wonder if this applies. In my case, I spend a great deal of time doing administrative tasks. My office is a “war zone” and it takes at least twice as long to find things because I have to prioritize between conducting interviews and checks and training and disciplinary meetings and drug screenings, etc. The feedback I get is “your office is a mess.” Personnally, I would love to just spend the time to get the office cleaned up. I could save two hours a day. However, I’m also expected to be available to assist in “crisis” which occur twice a day at one of our programs.

To Douglas:
There is no requirement for “Compensatory Time Off” for exempt employees. It is really problematic for hourly employees. We use to have it, but several years ago it was done away with.
All full time staff are required to put in “at least 40 hours per week.” Put in less and the health benifits are threatened and there is discipline. Put in more and nobody pays attention. If you take PTO, you are required to put in the extra hours before or after to take the PTO.

This is the website for executive, adminsitration, and professional exemptions from the dol. Hope it helps.

Most managers do quite a bit of administrative work.

I wish I could get a list of what a “non-exempt” task is. Also as an exempt employee, my day is not an 8 hour day. 20% of an 8 hour day is 1.6 hours. 20% of a 16 hour day is 3.2 hours. I spend so much time printing forms, filing, responding to phone inquiries, setting up appointments / interviews / testing, conducting reference checks, entering data into databases, creating orientation packages, making ID cards, etc. There is no tracking of the time I spend on these functions. Some days I can spend very little, others it is all I do.

I no longer supervise anyone, yet I am responsible for all HR functions including data analysis, policy and procedure development and implementation, compliance with accreditation and government regulations, conducting interviews, conducting 90% of all employee and supervisor training, etc. There are times, when I see the entry level workers making more money than me when we both show up and leave at the same time. They get OT.

I enjoy my “exempt duties” and I am dedicated to the agency mission. I also know the reality that unless the agency is forced to change this by regulation or court decision, that the situation will remain the same.