What Does Nonexempt in Salary Mean?

Overtime Pay

Employees who are non-exempt must receive overtime pay after they work a certain number of hours a day or a week according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Although laws vary by state, non-exempt employees are generally paid overtime after they work more than 40 hours a week. The rate of overtime employers must pay these workers is one and one half times the employees' standard hourly rate. To calculate non-exempt employees' hourly rate, employers take their weekly salary and divide it by the number of standard weekly hours the employees work. Therefore, employees with a weekly $1,000 salary have a standard hourly rate of $25. When these employees work overtime they must get paid $37.50 an hour for all the time they work above 40 hours a week.

State and federal labor laws mandate that most non-exempt employees get paid a minimum wage. As of May 2011, the federal minimum wage rate was $7.25 an hour. However, some state minimum wage rates differ from the federal rate. Employers who must comply with both state and federal labor laws must pay their non-exempt employees the higher of the two rates. For example, employers who must comply with state and federal labor laws and who operate businesses in states that have minimum wage rates lower than the federal rate must pay their employees at least $7.25 an hour.

Whether employees are performing actual job tasks or attending mandatory training programs, they must receive wages for time they spend at work. Additionally, non-exempt employees are also required to receive pay for performing work related tasks at home. Employers are also required to pay non-exempt employees whether they volunteer to work or complete unauthorized work. The only time employers are not required to pay employees for unauthorized work they do is if they are unaware that employees are performing the unauthorized work. According to FLSA laws, after employers are aware that employees are conducting work, even if employers did not ask employees to do the work, and employers do not stop employees from doing the work, employers must pay employees for time they put in.

When non-exempt employees take meal breaks that are 30 minutes or longer their employers are not required to pay them for taking the breaks. However, employees must have the chance to stop working during the break period. For example, if an employee leaves his desk to dine in the cafeteria, his employer does not have to pay him for this break. But if this same employee handles business telephone calls while eating lunch, his employer must pay him.