Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

 Whether the employee has authority to negotiate and bind the company on significant matters;  Whether the employee provides consultation or expert advice to management;  Whether the employee is involved in planning long or short-term business objectives;  Whether the employee investigates and resolves matters of significance on behalf of management; and  Whether the employee represents the company in handling complaints, arbitrating disputes or resolving grievances. 132

The regulations also provide that “the exercise of discretion and independent judgment implies that the employee has authority to make an independent choice, free from immediate direction or supervision.” 133 Moreover, “the fact that an employee’s decisions are revised or reversed after review does not mean that the employee is not exercising discretion and independent judgment.” 134 Thus, for example, “the policies formulated by [an exempt administrative] credit manager of a large corporation may be subject to review by higher company officials who may approve or disapprove these policies.” 135

c. Professional Employees

i. The Test To qualify for the professional employee exemption, the employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work that:

 Requires knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction (i.e., the “learned” professional); or  Requires invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor (i.e., the “creative” professional). 136

ii. The Learned Professional “Knowledge of an advanced type” means knowledge that cannot be attained at the high school level. 137 This type of knowledge is “predominantly intellectual in character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, as distinguished from performance of routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work.” 138 The phrase “field of science or learning” is defined as one that distinguishes the learned professions from “the mechanical arts or skilled trades where in some instances the knowledge is of a fairly advanced type, but is not in a field of science or learning.” 139

Introduction to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 29