Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

establishment who perform exempt executive work such as supervising and directing the work of other employees, ordering merchandise, managing the budget and authorizing payment of bills may have management as their primary duty even if the assistant managers spend more than 50 percent of the time performing nonexempt work such as running the cash register.” 123 Only time that would be considered hours worked under the FLSA is considered in determining an employee’s primary duty. Thus, standby or on-call time is not counted in determining how much time an employee spends in the performance of his or her exempt duties. 124 If the employee performs a combination of exempt duties (i.e., administrative and professional), the employer may combine the exempt duties for purposes of determining whether an employee is exempt. 125

a. Executive Employees To qualify for the executive employee exemption, the employee must:

 Have a primary duty of managing the enterprise in which the employee is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof;  Customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees (or the equivalent of two or more full-time employees); and  Have the authority to hire or fire other employees or have particular weight given to suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees. 126

Examples of Executive Duties:

In general, the following work is considered to be “management” of the enterprise and, therefore, exempt:

 Interviewing, selecting, training and evaluating the performance of employees;

 Setting and adjusting employees’ rates of pay and hours of work;

 Directing and planning the work of employees, including determining the techniques to be used by the employees;

 Maintaining production or sales records for use in supervision or control;

 Handling employee complaints and grievances;



Disciplining employees;

 Apportioning the work among employees;

 Determining the type of materials, supplies, machinery or tools to be used or merchandise to be bought, stocked or sold;

Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 27