White-Collar Workers
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the flagship law for American workers' rights that determines proper protocol concerning issues such as scheduling and wages, there are certain exemptions available to white-collar workers that remove them from the overall legal restrictions of the FLSA. These white-collar exemptions have continued after the original laws were passed, which only protected government and manual labor workers. As the law has taken on a wider jurisdiction over the past few years, more confusion has been raised over the role of white-collar workers.
To learn more about your legal options if you are being wrongly exempted from overtime pay, contact the Houston employment lawyers of the Ross Law Group by calling 800-634-8042 today.
Exemption Statuses
In part, one of the major reasons for the evolving inclusion of white-collar workers to the FLSA regulatory body is simply because more Americans have become white-collar laborers over the past few decades, in part due to an increase in education countrywide and in part due to technological advancements. As computers have revolutionized business practices, the need for operators instead of factory workers has created a white-collar environment for many businesses to profit from. As a result, the following overtime regulations apply:
- Emergency workers, including police, are not exempt from overtime
- Executives who retain certain managerial powers remain exempt
- Wages must reach at least $100,000 for compensation-based exemption status
- Independent thought or judgment may qualify certain positions for exemptions
- Highly-trained professionals may be exempt
These standards are important for the modern workforce to recognize, as some employees may be told they are not allowed to collect overtime pay, when revisions to the existing law have allowed for such an opportunity.
Contact Us
If you feel you have been mistreated by an employer, contact the Houston employment attorneys of the Ross Law Group today at 800-634-8042 for more information.