Is my salary too low to be exempt from overtime?
If you are paid less than $684 a week, $35,568 a year, you cannot be exempt from federal overtime — whatever your job title is and whether or not you are paid a salary. Clear that floor and the salary test is only the first of three tests you have to fail before your employer can stop paying you time and a half.
| Yearly salary | A week | Clears the salary test? | An hour over a 50-hour week |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $576.92 | No — overtime is owed | $11.54 |
| $35,568 | $684.00 | Yes | $13.68 |
| $42,000 | $807.69 | Yes | $16.15 |
| $55,000 | $1,057.69 | Yes | $21.15 |
| $75,000 | $1,442.31 | Yes | $28.85 |
The three tests
To be exempt you have to be paid on a salary basis, be paid at least $684 a week, and actually do executive, administrative or professional work. All three have to be true. Salary basis means a fixed amount that doesn't drop when you work a short week; docking your pay for a slow afternoon can break the exemption outright. The duties test looks at what you really do all day, not what the job description claims: managing two or more people, exercising independent judgment on significant matters, or doing work that needs an advanced degree.
Titles don't decide it
"Assistant manager", "coordinator" and "analyst" are not exemptions. Neither is being paid a salary on its own — plenty of salaried people are entitled to overtime and simply never claim it. If you spend most of your week doing the same work as the people you supposedly supervise, the duties test is likely not met no matter what you earn.
The high earner shortcut
Someone whose total annual pay reaches $107,432 clears a much lighter duties test: they need only customarily perform one of the exempt duties. They still have to be paid at least $684 a week on a salary basis.
If you are owed overtime
Work out what your salary really pays per hour, then compare it with what the same hours would earn as an hourly worker. A salary that looks fine over 40 hours thins out fast over 50, which the last column above shows. The hourly to salary calculator converts in the other direction, the overtime calculator gives the week you should have been paid, and California's rules add daily overtime on top. Several states set a salary floor well above the federal one, so check your state's rule before deciding you are exempt.