Fair Labor Standards Act

For any employee to qualify for the benefits in FLSA the position must fulfill the criteria in the regulation, i.e. the salary and duties must be fulfilled. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employees receive overtime payment at a rate of 1.5 times to the regular remuneration for all the time worked above 40 hours in a week made of seven days. This law gives the minimum standards that may be inferred and they are not subject to reduction (Grossman, 1978). However those who are salaried above $445 a week then they are not entitled to overtime if their jobs meet certain description.

The employer is also mandated to abide by other state, federal or municipal laws, ordinances, collective bargaining agreements, regulations or employer policies that may give better benefits that those provided in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA - Overtime Eligibility & Exemption, 2007). The act also applies to Blue collar employees who are entitled to overtime in spite of their salary; these people include police officers, deputy sheriffs, detectives, highway patrol officers, state troopers, investigators, correctional officers, inspectors, parole or probation officers, fire fighters, park rangers, paramedics, ambulance personnel, rescue workers, emergency medical technicians, hazardous materials workers among others offering crucial services.

Three requirements must be fulfilled for any position to be exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime payment details; these include, firstly the salary must be paid on a fixed salary and not based on hour (this is except for computer technicians), this amount may be paid per week but most important is that it doesn’t base the payments on hours. Secondly, the payment must be above $445 every week despite of the hours worked; an example for this would be a halftime worker being paid a sum of $457 every week and a fulltime worker being paid $457 every week then they will both be covered in the act (FLSA - Overtime Eligibility & Exemption, 2007).

Thirdly, every position to be evaluated for the exemptions must qualify for the duties tests for the categories of executive exemption, administrative exemption, learned or creative profession exemption, computer professional exemption, highly compensated employees, and outside sales exemption. Other tests taken include the salary level tests and salary basis tests.

For executive exemptions the worker primary duties must involve managing the firm, must be involved in directing of more than two full time workers, and must have the authority to recruit or fire workers or give advice to the hiring and firing committee (Mettler, 1994). For administrative exemption the worker must perform office work related to management, or enterprise operations which is not manual, and the worker must work in discretion and independence in judgment with regard to all confidential matters.

Learned or creative profession exemption needs the worker to have advanced knowledge in related field of work which must be through specialized training and a wealth of experience. For computer professionals then the individual must be a computer systems analyst, software engineer, or computer programmer with a wealth of skills and experience in the field of computers and be able to execute his duties appropriately (FLSA - Overtime Eligibility & Exemption, 2007). Highly compensated employees must regularly be involved in at least one or more of the duties of an executive, administrator, or learned creative worker.

For an outside sales exemption the worker must be involved in the sales of the enterprise legally and must be paid by the clients, they must also be directly linked to the employer workplace customarily or regularly (FLSA - Overtime Eligibility & Exemption, 2007). All these exemption must have first met the basic requirement of earnings of not less than $445 every week for exemptions from overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act to apply.