Quick Reference

Overtime threshold

Hours worked beyond this in a workweek trigger the time-and-one-half premium under Section 7(a) — as a general standard.

Exemption tests

Salary basis, salary level, and primary duty must all be satisfied before the executive, administrative, or professional exemption applies.

Employees directed

An exempt executive must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees, or their equivalent.

Owner exemption

A business owner with a bona fide 20-percent equity interest who is actively engaged in management skips the salary basis and salary level tests entirely.

Time-spent guide

Spending more than half the workweek on exempt work generally satisfies primary duty — but less can still qualify if the other factors support it.

Outside sales salary floor

Subpart G's salary basis and salary level requirements do not apply to the outside sales exemption at all.

Standard salary level

The weekly floor for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions, paid exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities.

Highly compensated floor

Total annual compensation an employee must reach before the lighter one-duty test replaces the full primary-duty analysis.

Territories salary level

The reduced weekly floor for employers other than the Federal government in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

American Samoa salary level

The reduced weekly floor for employers other than the Federal government in American Samoa.

Computer employee rate

The hourly-pay alternative to a weekly salary under the section 13(a)(17) computer employee exemption.

Highly compensated total

The same $107,432 annual-compensation threshold, tracked over the employer's chosen 52-week period.

Salary portion required

At least this much of a highly compensated employee's pay must arrive on a pure salary or fee basis — commissions and bonuses do not count toward it.

The workweek

A fixed, regularly recurring period of seven consecutive 24-hour periods — the unit every pay and overtime calculation runs on.

Compensation period

The period — a calendar year by default — over which a highly compensated employee's total annual compensation is measured.

Catch-up window

How long after the compensation period ends an employer has to pay a final catch-up amount toward the highly compensated threshold.

Hospital work period

Hospitals and residential-care establishments may agree to compute overtime over this period instead of the standard workweek.

Daily overtime line

Within a 14-day hospital work period, hours beyond this on a single workday earn overtime regardless of the 80-hour count.

14-day overtime line

Hours beyond this across the full 14-day period earn overtime, crediting any daily overtime premium already paid.

Hospital overtime rate

The premium owed on hours crossing either the daily or the 14-day threshold.

Guaranty pay cap

A section 7(f) weekly guaranty can cover no more than this many hours; hours worked beyond it still earn additional overtime.

Nonexempt record items

Every covered nonexempt employee's record must contain twelve specific data points, from identifying information through wages paid each pay period.

Exempt (EAP) record items

Executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees need only seven of those items, plus the basis on which wages are paid.

Tipped cash wage

The direct cash wage an employer pays a tipped employee before the tip credit closes the gap to the applicable minimum wage.

Ag recordkeeping trigger

Extra agricultural records attach only once an employer used more than this many man-days of agricultural labor in a calendar quarter.

Central-office window

Records kept at a central office rather than the workplace must reach the Wage and Hour Division within this window of the Administrator's notice.

Payroll record retention

Payroll records, the agreements behind them, and sales and purchase records must be preserved at least this long.

Supporting record retention

Time cards, wage rate tables, and order, shipping, and billing records need only be preserved this long.

Statute of limitations

An employee must sue for unpaid minimum wages or overtime within this long of when each underpaid workweek's claim accrues.

Tip-retention penalty cap

The maximum civil penalty per violation of section 3(m)(2)(B)'s tip-retention rule.

Repeat/willful cap

The maximum civil penalty per violation for a repeated or willful violation of the minimum-wage or overtime requirements.

Liquidated damages

Back pay owed is doubled unless the employer proves both good faith and reasonable grounds for believing it complied.

Exception deadline

How long an employer has after receiving a penalty notice to file a written exception and request a hearing before it becomes final.

Board review deadline

A petition asking the Administrative Review Board to review an Administrative Law Judge's decision must actually reach the Board within this long.