An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 6 – Wage And Hour Laws

the person to have a valid California teaching credential and is not employed in that position pursuant to an emergency permit, intern permit, or waiver. 550 LCW Practice Advisor The California Association of Private School

Organizations (CAPSO) has compiled the salaries for each school district and County Office of Education in the state. This information is necessary for schools to calculate the minimum salary for an exempt teacher under Labor Code 515.8. The website also explains to users how to compare the database information to determine the relevant numbers for their school. The database, with instructions, can be found on the CAPSO webpage for Public School Salary Schedule Data. 551

In order for a part-time private school teacher to be exempt, the teacher must earn a salary equal to the proportion of the full-time instructional schedule for which the part-time employee is employed. 552 This means that once a school calculates the minimum salary that must be paid to its full-time teachers to be exempt from overtime, the school may reduce that salary amount to correspond to the instructional schedule worked by the part-time teacher. For example, a teacher working half the instructional schedule of a full-time teacher would only need to earn half the minimum salary of a full-time teacher. Private schools will have to obtain public school teacher salary schedule information to determine the minimum salary required for their teachers to be exempt. Some school districts make their collective bargaining agreements available online while others do not. The California Department of Education also makes some of this information available. Schools may request this salary information, which is a public record, directly from school districts. Private schools may determine school district or county office of education salary information by referring to school salary schedules in effect for up to twelve months prior to the start of the school year. 553 LCW Practice Advisor Private schools should carefully analyze whether their teachers meet all requirements to be exempt under California law, particularly in light of the Labor Code’s specific salary requirements for private school teachers to qualify as exempt. d. Nurses The IWC Wage Orders specifically exclude registered nurses and pharmacists from the professional exemption. 554 However, they may be considered exempt if they individually meet the criteria for the “executive” or “administrative” exemptions. Note that the FLSA regards registered nurses as exempt professionals, but private schools must follow California law which treats them as non-exempt.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 162