Wage / Hour / Overtime Pay
The Scharfman Law Firm, PLLC represents clients in wage, hour, and overtime claims all over Texas and the United States, and is an aggressive advocate for our clients and their rights. We are committed to helping employees fight for their rights when they have been underpaid or denied pay and overtime.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers that meet the FLSA’s criteria must pay employees, who are not exempt or whose jobs do not fall within certain FLSA exceptions, overtime in the amount of time and a half the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours per week.
Certain exemptions are recognized under the FLSA. There are Professional, Administrative, Executive, Outside Sales and Computer exemptions, which require both a duties test and a salary test to be met. We can review the employee’s job classifications to determine whether the employee is entitled to overtime. The table below is a helpful guide in describing whether an employee is exempt.
Exemptions:
Executive Employees
Current Standard Test
Salary Level
$684 per week
Duties
Whose primary duty is management of the enterprise in which the employee is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof;
Who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees; and
Who has the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees are given particular weight.
Administrative Employees
Current Standard Test
Salary Level
$684 per week
Duties
Whose primary duty is the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and
Whose primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.
Professional Employees
Current Standard Test
Salary Level
$684 per week
Duties
Whose primary duty is the performance of work requiring knowledge of an advanced type (defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment) in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction; or
Whose primary duty is the performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.
Computer Employees
Current Test
Salary Level
$684 per week or
$27.63 an hour
Duties
Computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers or other similarly skilled workers in the computer field are eligible for exemption, but only if the employee’s primary duty consists of:
(1) The application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software or system functional specifications;
(2) The design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user or system design specifications;
(3) The design, documentation, testing, creation or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems; or
(4) A combination of the aforementioned duties, the performance of which requires the same level of skills.
Outside Sales Employees
Salary Level
No minimum salary required
Duties
Whose primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer; and
Who is customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business in performing such primary duty.
Certain filing deadlines and statutes of limitations apply to these claims.