The exempt employee test: salary basis, salary level, and primary duty

Paying someone a salary does not, by itself, take away their right to overtime. This chapter walks through the three-part test that actually decides exempt status, and the misclassifications that catch employers off guard.

In this chapter

A salary alone never makes an employee exempt from overtime — salary basis, salary level, and primary duty must all be satisfied.
“Primary duty” means an employee’s principal, most important responsibility, not whichever task eats the most hours on the clock.
Manual laborers, police officers, and firefighters stay overtime-eligible no matter how they’re paid or titled, and an impressive job title never substitutes for the legal test.