# Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees

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## Record

- **Collection:** Federal Register
- **Document type:** Proposed Rule
- **Published:** March 31, 2003
- **Citation:** 68 FR 15560

## Text

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Wage and Hour Division
29 CFR Part 541
RIN 1215-AA14
Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees

AGENCY:

Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration, Labor.

ACTION:

Proposed rule and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Labor proposes to update and revise the regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) implementing the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees. These exemptions are often referred to as the FLSA's “white collar” exemptions. To be considered exempt, employees must meet certain minimum tests related to their primary job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than specified minimum amounts. The basic “duties” tests were originally established in 1938 and revised in 1940. The duties tests were last modified in 1949 and have remained essentially unchanged since that time. The “salary basis” test has remained essentially unchanged since 1954. The salary levels required for exemption were last updated in 1975, and the amounts adopted at that time were intended as an interim adjustment. Suggested changes to the part 541 regulations have been the subject of public commentary for years, including a review of the regulations by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1999. GAO recommended that the Secretary of Labor comprehensively review and make necessary changes to the part 541 regulations to better meet the needs of both employers and employees in the modern work place, and to anticipate future work place trends. During 2002, the Department of Labor convened a series of stakeholder meetings, and heard suggestions for changes from over 40 interest groups representing employees and employers. The Department of Labor has carefully examined issues of concern raised by various interested parties in developing this proposed rule. The Department now invites public comment on all aspects of the proposed rule.

DATES:

Submit written comments on or before June 30, 2003.

ADDRESSES:

Address written comments to Tammy D. McCutchen, Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-3502, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210. Commenters who would like to be notified that their comments were received should include with their comments a self-addressed, stamped postcard or submit them certified mail, return receipt requested. As a convenience, comments of 20 pages or less may be submitted by facsimile (“FAX”) machine to (202) 693-1432, which is not a toll-free number, or by e-mail to:
whd-reg@fenix2.dol-esa.gov.
Because we continue to experience delays in receiving mail in our area, commenters are encouraged to submit any comments by mail early, or to transmit them electronically by FAX or e-mail.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Richard M. Brennan, Deputy Director, Office of Enforcement Policy, Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-3506, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210. Telephone: (202) 693-0745 (this is not a toll-free number). Copies of this proposed rule may be obtained in alternative formats (Large Print, Braille, Audio Tape or Disc), upon request, by calling (202) 693-0023 (not a toll-free number). TTY/TDD callers may dial toll-free 1-877-889-5627 to obtain information or request materials in alternative formats.

Questions of interpretation and/or enforcement of regulations issued by this agency or referenced in this notice may be directed to the nearest Wage and Hour Division District Office. Locate the nearest office by calling our toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. in your local time zone, or log onto the Wage and Hour Division's Web site for a nationwide listing of Wage and Hour District and Area Offices at:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/contacts/whd/america2.htm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Paperwork Reduction Act

This proposed rule contains no new information collection requirements subject to review and approval by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501,
et seq.
). The information collection requirements for employers who claim exemption under 29 CFR part 541 are contained in the general FLSA recordkeeping requirements codified at 29 CFR part 516, which were approved by the Office of Management and Budget under OMB Control number 1215-0017.
See
29 CFR 516.0 and 516.3.

II. Background

The FLSA generally requires covered employers to pay their employees at least the federal minimum wage (which is currently $5.15 an hour), and overtime premium pay of time-and-one-half the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a work week. However, the FLSA includes a number of exemptions from the minimum wage and overtime requirements. Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA, codified at 29 U.S.C. 213(a)(1), exempts from both minimum wage and overtime pay “any employee employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity * * * or in the capacity of outside salesman (as such terms are defined and delimited from time to time by regulations of the Secretary, subject to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act * * *.)”

The FLSA does not define the terms “executive,” “administrative,” “professional,” or “outside salesman.” However, pursuant to Congress’ grant of rulemaking authority, implementing regulations have been issued, at 29 CFR part 541, defining the scope of the section 13(a)(1) exemptions. Because the FLSA delegates to the Secretary of Labor the power to define and delimit the specific terms of the exemptions through notice-and-comment rulemaking, the regulations so issued have the binding effect of law.
1

1

See

Batterton
v.
Francis,
432 U.S. 416, 425 n. 9 (1977).

These exemptions have engendered considerable confusion over the years regarding who is, and who is not, exempt. The implementing regulations generally require each of three tests to be met for the exemption to apply: (1) The employee must be paid a predetermined and fixed salary, not an hourly wage that is subject to reductions because of variations in the quality or quantity of work performed (the “salary basis test”); (2) the amount of salary paid must meet minimum specified amounts (the “salary level test”); and (3) the employee's job duties must primarily involve managerial, administrative or professional skills as defined by the regulations (the “duties tests”).

Legislative History

Section 13(a)(1) was included in the original FLSA of 1938, and was based on provisions contained in the earlier

National Industrial Recovery Act and state law precedents. Specific references in the legislative history to the employee exemptions contained in section 13(a)(1) are scant. However, the exemptions were premised on the belief that the workers exempted typically earned salaries well above the minimum wage, and they were presumed to enjoy other compensatory privileges such as above average fringe benefits, greater job security and better opportunities for advancement, setting them apart from the nonexempt workers entitled to overtime pay.
2

Further, the type of work they performed was difficult to standardize to any time frame and could not be easily spread to other workers after 40 hours in a week, making enforcement of the overtime provisions difficult and generally precluding the potential job expansion intended by the FLSA's time-and-a-half overtime premium.
3

2
Report of the Minimum Wage Study Commission, Volume IV, pp. 236 and 240 (June 1981).

3

Id.

Initially, persons employed in a “local retailing capacity” were also exempt, but Congress eliminated that language from the section 13(a)(1) exemptions in 1961 when the FLSA was expanded to cover retail and service enterprises.
4

Teachers and academic administrative personnel were added to the exemption when elementary and secondary schools were made subject to the FLSA in 1966. The Education Amendments of 1972 made the Equal Pay provisions, section 6(d) of the FLSA, expressly applicable to employees who were otherwise exempt from the FLSA under section 13(a)(1). A 1990 enactment expanded the exemption to include computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, and similarly skilled professional workers, including those paid on an hourly basis if paid at least 6
1/2
times the minimum wage.
5

The compensation test for computer-related occupations was subsequently capped at $27.63 an hour (6
1/2
times the former $4.25 minimum wage) when Congress increased the minimum wage to its current $5.15 rate and enacted the new section 13(a)(17) exemption for such computer employees as part of the 1996 FLSA Amendments.
6

4
Public Law 87-30, 75 Stat. 65 (May 5, 1961). Although Congress eliminated the separate, broad exemption for retail employees in 1961, such employees could still qualify as exempt executive, administrative or professional employees if they met the requirements for these exemptions, and Congress relaxed the duties tests solely to make it easier for such firms to meet the exemption requirements.

5
Public Law 101-583, 104 Stat. 2871 (Nov. 15, 1990).

6
29 U.S.C. 213(a)(17), as added by the 1996 FLSA Amendments (sec. 2105(a), Public Law 104-188, 110 Stat. 1755 (Aug. 20, 1996)).

Regulatory History

The FLSA became law on June 25, 1938, and the first version of part 541 was issued later that year in October (3 FR 2518; Oct. 20, 1938). In 1940, after receiving many comments on the original regulations, the Wage and Hour Division convened a series of public hearings for interested parties to express views on the regulations and to propose amendments. Revised regulations were issued in October 1940 (5 FR 4077; Oct. 15, 1940).
7

Further hearings were initiated in 1947, leading to revised regulations that were issued in December 1949 (14 FR 7705; Dec. 24, 1949).
8

An explanatory bulletin interpreting some of the terms used in the regulations was published as subpart B of part 541 on December 28, 1949 (14 FR 7730), and became effective on January 25, 1950. On March 9, 1954, the Department issued proposed revisions to the regulatory interpretations of “salary basis” (19 FR 1321), followed by a final rule issued on July 17, 1954 (19 FR 4405). The regulations were revised in 1958 to adjust the salary levels (23 FR 8962; Nov. 18, 1958).
9

Further changes were made to accommodate statutory amendments to the FLSA and/or to increase the salary levels in 1961, 1963, 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1975.
10

The existing salary rates were last revised on an interim basis in 1975 (
see
40 FR 7092; Feb. 19, 1975). Revisions to increase the salary rates in January 1981 (issued at the end of the Carter Administration) were stayed indefinitely by the incoming Reagan Administration (46 FR 11972; Feb. 12, 1981). Based on petitions from industry groups to address other parts of the rules, and developing case law, the Department began a more comprehensive review leading to a 1985 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that reopened the public comment period and broadened the review to all aspects of the regulations (50 FR 47696; Nov. 11, 1985).

7

See,
“Executive, Administrative, Professional * * * Outside Salesman” Redefined, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor, Report and Recommendations of the Presiding Officer (Harold Stein) at Hearings Preliminary to Redefinition (Oct. 10, 1940) (“Stein Report”).

8

See,
Report and Recommendations on Proposed Revisions of Regulations, part 541, by Harry Weiss, Presiding Officer, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions, U.S. Department of Labor (June 30, 1949) (“Weiss Report”).

9

See,
Report and Recommendations on Proposed Revisions of Regulations, part 541, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, by Harry S. Kantor, Presiding Officer, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions, U.S. Department of Labor (March 3, 1958) (“Kantor Report”).

10

See,
26 FR 8635 (Sept. 15, 1961); 28 FR 9505 (Aug. 30, 1963); 32 FR 7823 (May 30, 1967); 35 FR 883 (Jan. 22, 1970); 38 FR 11390 (May 7, 1973); and 40 FR 7091 (Feb. 15, 1975).

The Department revised these regulations in the early 1990s to address two specific issues. A 1990 law (Pub. L. 101-583; Nov. 15, 1990) required regulations to be issued permitting computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, and other similarly-skilled workers in the computer field to be exempt, including those paid on an hourly basis if the hourly rate exceeded 6
1/2
times the applicable minimum wage. (57 FR 46744; Oct. 9, 1992). Also, in 1992, the Department issued a final rule to modify the exemption's requirement for payment on a “salary basis” as applied in the public sector for otherwise exempt employees paid according to pay and leave systems based on principles of public accountability. Under 29 CFR 541.5d (57 FR 37677; Aug. 19, 1992), an otherwise exempt public sector employee does not lose exempt status under a regulated public sector pay and leave system that requires partial-day (or hourly) deductions from pay for employee absences not covered by accrued leave, or for budget-driven furloughs.

Overview of Existing Requirements

The implementing regulations in part 541 contain specific criteria that define each category of exemption provided by section 13(a)(1). The applicability of any particular exemption is not presumed under the FLSA, but must be affirmatively established. Job titles, nomenclature, or job descriptions do not determine the exemptions, nor does paying a “salary” rather than an hourly rate. Rather, whether an exemption applies depends on the specific duties and responsibilities of each employee's job, how much salary the employee is paid, and whether the salary is guaranteed without regard to the quality or quantity of work performed, as defined by the regulations.

The duties tests differ for each category of exemption. Two different salary (or fee) levels exist for each of the exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees. The salary requirements do not apply to certain licensed or certified doctors, lawyers and teachers, or to outside sales employees. Employees paid below the applicable lower salary rate are not exempt regardless of their duties. Those paid above the higher (or

“upset”) salary rate are exempt if they meet a “short” duties test. Those paid between the higher and lower salary rates must meet a more detailed “long” duties test.

The salary tests were originally designed to operate as a ready guide to assist employers in deciding which employees were more likely to meet the duties tests in the exemptions. In fact, the salary levels specified in the regulations were once viewed as the best indicator of exempt status. As last revised effective April 1, 1975, the salary required for executive and administrative employees under the current “long” test is $155 per week; professional employees are exempt at $170 per week. The short test salary level (requiring fewer duties to be satisfied) for all three exemptions is $250 per week. Because these salary levels have not been raised in 28 years, virtually all employees are tested for exemption today under the “short” duties tests. Moreover, while the existing salary tests ($155, $170, and $250 per week) still reflect the interim 1975 rates, a full-time minimum wage worker today earns $206 per week for a 40-hour work week. Consequently, the existing salary tests no longer provide employees or employers any help in distinguishing between bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees and those who should not be considered for exemption. Moreover, the outdated salary tests and complex duties tests in the current regulation cause employees to be erroneously misclassified as exempt and thus not paid properly.

Under the currently applicable “short” test exemption requirements, an exempt “executive” employee must be paid at least $250 per week on a salary basis, have a primary duty to manage the enterprise or a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof, and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees. An exempt “administrative” employee must be paid at least $250 per week on a salary or fee basis, have a primary duty of office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers (or similar functions in the administration of a school system or educational institution in work directly related to academic instruction), and perform work requiring the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. An exempt “professional” employee must be paid at least $250 per week on a salary or fee basis; have a primary duty of (1) work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by prolonged, specialized, intellectual instruction and study, or (2) work that is original and creative in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, or (3) teaching in a school system or educational institution, or (4) work as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly-skilled worker in the computer software field; and perform work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, or work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor. Under the professional exemption, the salary or fee requirement does not apply to certain licensed or certified doctors, lawyers and teachers; or to certain computer-related occupations if paid on an hourly basis at $27.63 or more per hour. An “outside sales” employee who is customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's places of business making sales or obtaining orders or contracts for services or use of facilities, and who does not exceed a twenty percent tolerance per work week performing duties unrelated to his or her own outside sales or solicitations, is exempt. There are no salary or fee requirements for outside sales employees.

Employees meeting the foregoing requirements are excluded from the Act's minimum wage and overtime protections. Thus, they may work any number of hours in the work week and are not subject to the Federal law's overtime pay requirements. Some state laws have stricter exemption standards than those just described. The FLSA does not preempt any such stricter State standards. If a State or local law establishes a higher standard than the provisions of the FLSA, the higher standard applies.
See
section 18 of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. 218.

The executive and administrative exemptions apply generally to certain management and staff-level positions within an employer's organization. For example, department heads with management as their primary duty, who regularly supervise two or more full time employees in their department, may qualify as executives if they are paid a predetermined salary of $250 or more per week. An administrative employee must primarily perform office or nonmanual work of substantial importance to the management of the business, but is not required to supervise other employees. Persons with functional (rather than departmental) management authority, or who perform “staff” rather than production or sales work, may qualify as administrative employees if their duties include “discretion and independent judgment” or decision-making responsibilities on important matters in managing the employer's general business operations (
e.g.,
if they primarily determine or affect management policies in a particular area, such as credit, personnel, or labor relations). Executive assistants delegated decision-making authority to carry out parts of an exempt executive or administrative employee's management responsibilities may also qualify as exempt administrative employees.

The professional exemption (aside from the artistic, teaching, and computer-related categories) applies to the recognized professions requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study (
i.e.,
the “learned” professions, such as doctor, lawyer, architect, engineer, etc.), and is typically characterized by possession of the appropriate academic degree for the particular profession. Outside sales employees must regularly work away from their employer's place of business making sales or obtaining orders or contracts; they may not exceed a 20 percent tolerance for performing duties unrelated to their own outside sales work. “Inside sales” employees are not included within the scope of the exemption for “outside sales” employees.

Under the regulatory “salary basis” test codified at 29 CFR 541.118, partial-day deductions from pay based on the number of hours worked (“pay-docking”) are generally not allowed in the private sector (unless made in the first or last weeks of employment or due to unpaid leave taken pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. 2601
et seq.
). Disciplinary deductions from pay also violate the “salary basis” test (except for safety rules of major significance, such as no-smoking rules in oil refineries and coal mines). These concepts clarify the intended meaning of the requirements for payment of a guaranteed salary—
i.e.,
the predetermined salary amount may not be reduced because of variations in either the quality or quantity of the work performed by the employee. Pay practices not meeting the guaranteed “salary basis” requirements cause the exemption to be declared inapplicable, in some cases for entire classes of employees.
11

11
As noted, a special rule applies to employees of public agencies paid according to regulated pay and leave systems that require deductions for partial-day absences not covered by accrued leave,

and for budget-driven furloughs (
see
29 CFR 541.5d).

Public Commentary and the GAO Report

Suggested changes to the part 541 regulations have been the subject of extensive public commentary for years, including a report issued by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in September 1999.
12

In this report, GAO chronicled the background and history of the exemptions, estimated the number of workers who might be included within the scope of the exemptions, identified the major concerns of employers and employees regarding the exemptions, and suggested possible solutions to the issues of concern raised by the affected interests. In general, the employers contacted by GAO were concerned that the regulatory tests are too complicated, confusing, and outdated for the modern work place, and create potential liability for violations when errors in classification occur.
13

12
Fair Labor Standards Act: White Collar Exemptions in the Modern Work Place (GAO/HEHS-99-164, September 30, 1999).

13
Under the FLSA, employees may sue their employer (individually or collectively) for up to two, or in some cases three, years of back wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages and attorney fees and court costs, for violations of the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime requirements.

Employers were particularly concerned about potential liability for violations of the complex “salary basis” test and the exacting requirements of the so-called “no-docking” rule, which has been the focus of lawsuits against employers in recent years brought collectively by groups of highly paid managerial and professional employees. This test in effect limits employers' ability to “dock” exempt employees” pay for partial-day personal absences and disciplinary violations, which limits employers' ability to hold exempt employees accountable for their time and actions. In addition, employers believed that limiting the administrative and professional exemptions to “nonproduction” employees did not account for the effects of modern technology on employment today. They also noted the traditional limits of the exemptions have blurred in the modern work place, citing highly skilled and highly paid technical workers without college degrees who do not qualify as exempt professionals but who perform essentially the same job as exempt engineers who have the required academic degrees. Manufacturing employers pointed to new technology used in factories, which requires advanced technical skills but far less traditional “manual” labor. They also told GAO that, while these workers may have to follow precise written guidelines to perform their work, prescribed procedures were important to modern quality control. Employers also believed adherence to precise written guidelines—one major distinction between exempt and nonexempt workers under the existing regulations—is necessary in a modern, efficient work place. Employers also complained that the discretion and independent judgment requirements for administrative and professional employees are confusing and applied inconsistently by Wage and Hour Division investigators in classifying similarly-situated employees, and are particularly difficult to apply. Thus, employers were unsure how to classify administrative personnel. GAO's discussions with employers and Wage and Hour Division investigators, and its review of compliance cases, confirmed that this part of the duties test involved particularly difficult and subjective determinations, for both the employers and the investigators, and that it was a source of contention in Department audits.

Employee representatives contacted by GAO, in contrast, were most concerned that the use of the exemptions be limited to preserve existing overtime work hour limits and the 40-hour standard work week for as many employees as possible. They believed the tests have become weakened as applied today by judicial rulings and do not adequately restrict employers' use of the exemptions. When combined with the low salary test levels, the employee representatives felt that few protections remain, particularly for low-income supervisory employees. They believed that inflation has severely eroded the salary-level limitations originally envisioned by the regulations. Because of inflation, according to the employee representatives, the current salary test levels are now near the minimum wage level, rendering application of the regulations to the current work force virtually meaningless.

GAO's report noted that the conflicting interests affected by these rules have made consensus difficult and that, since the FLSA was enacted, the interests of employers to expand the white collar exemptions have competed with those of employees to limit use of the exemptions. To resolve the issues presented, GAO suggested that employers' desires for clear and unambiguous regulatory standards must be balanced with employees' desires for fair and equitable treatment in the work place. The GAO recommended that the Secretary of Labor comprehensively review the regulations and restructure the exemptions to better accommodate today's workplace and to anticipate future work place trends.

The House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing in May 2000 to receive testimony from GAO and other interested parties on GAO's September 1999 report. Testimony provided by the GAO, representatives of business and labor organizations, and the Department of Labor confirmed GAO's assessment of the issues and the difficulty in moving forward with constructive changes due to the differing views of the many affected and interested parties, and the potential impact of possible changes. Representatives of worker interests opposed making changes that would remove overtime protections for workers now covered, while business interests and employer groups advocated modernizing the regulations to exempt more classifications of workers from overtime pay.

III. Summary of Current Regulatory Proposal

Structure and Organization

Part 541 presently contains two subparts. Subpart A provides the regulatory tests that define each category of the exemption (executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales). Subpart B provides interpretations of the terms used in the exemptions. Subpart B was first issued as an explanatory bulletin effective in January 1950 to provide guidance to the public on how the Wage and Hour Division interpreted and applied the exemption criteria when enforcing the FLSA. The Department proposes to eliminate the current distinction between the “regulations” in subpart A and the “interpretations” in subpart B. This will consolidate and streamline the regulatory text, reduce redundancies, and make the regulations more understandable and easier to decipher when applying them to particular factual situations, providing much-requested simplification. In addition, eliminating the distinction between the subpart A “regulations” and the subpart B “interpretations” will eliminate confusion regarding the appropriate level of deference to be given to the provisions in each subpart.

The proposed rule reorganizes the subparts according to each category of exemption, and consolidates common elements (such as a new subpart containing common definitions), in order to eliminate unnecessary duplication and repetition of regulatory

text. Thus, after several introductory provisions in subpart A, the proposed new subpart B would pertain to the executive exemption; subpart C would pertain to the administrative exemption; subpart D would pertain to the professional exemption; subpart E would contain provisions regarding computer employees; and subpart F would contain provisions regarding outside sales employees. The proposed subpart G would include provisions regarding salary requirements applicable to most of the exemptions, including salary levels and the salary basis test. Subpart G would also include a section on highly compensated employees. Proposed subpart H would contain definitions and other miscellaneous provisions applicable to all or several of the exemptions. Finally, numerous editorial changes are proposed throughout the rule to streamline and improve its clarity, delete outdated references and illustrations, and remove gender-specific references.

Current section 541.6, entitled “Petition for amendment of regulations,” has been deleted in this proposed rule. The substance of that section, originally adopted in 1938 and providing for interested persons to petition the Administrator for desired changes in these regulations, has been superseded and supplanted by enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553(e).

Finally, the proposed rule deletes a number of discussions regarding application of the exemption to specific occupations. These discussions appeared to be outdated, relating to occupations and duties which may not exist in the 21st century economy. However, because most stakeholders find such examples useful in applying the regulations to specific occupations, we invite comments on specific occupations and duties which should be discussed in the regulations. In particular, we invite comments on occupations the exempt status of which has been the subject of confusion and litigation including but not limited to pilots, athletic trainers, funeral directors, insurance salespersons, loan officers, stock brokers, hotel sales and catering managers, and dietary managers in retirement homes. The Department anticipates that the final rule will include additional provisions on the application of the exemptions to such borderline occupations, but requires more information about the particular job duties and responsibilities generally found in such occupations. We invite comments on which occupations should be included in the final rule and whether such occupations should be treated as exempt or nonexempt, including detailed information about job duties in such occupations.

Subpart A, General Regulations, §§ 541.000—.002

The current regulations have several general, introductory provisions scattered in various locations. The proposed regulations would gather these provisions together into proposed subpart A. Thus, the proposed section 541.000 combines an introductory statement currently located at section 541.99 and information currently located at section 541.5b regarding the application of the equal pay provisions in section 6(d) of the FLSA to employees exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA under section 13(a)(1). Proposed section 541.000 also contains new language to reflect legislative changes to the FLSA regarding computer employees and information regarding the new organizational structure of the proposed regulations. Proposed section 541.001 relocates definitions of “Act” and “Administrator” from their current location in section 541.0. Finally, proposed section 541.002 contains a general statement that job titles alone are insufficient to establish the exempt status of an employee. This fundamental concept, equally applicable to all the exemption categories, currently appears in section 541.201(b) regarding administrative employees.

Subpart B, Executive Employees, §§ 541.100—.107

To qualify as an exempt executive under the current regulations, an employee must be compensated on a salary basis at a rate of not less than $155 per week and meet the “long” duties test, or at a rate of not less than $250 per week and meet an abbreviated “short” duties test. The long test requires that an exempt executive employee: Have a primary duty of managing the enterprise (or a recognized department or subdivision thereof); customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees; have authority to hire or fire other employees or have particular weight given to suggestions and recommendations as to hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or other change of status; customarily and regularly exercise discretionary powers; and devote no more than 20 percent (or as much as 40 percent in retail or service establishments) of hours worked per week to activities that are not directly and closely related to performing exempt managerial work. The percentage restrictions on performing nonexempt work in the long test do not apply to an employee who is in sole charge of an independent or physically separate branch establishment, or to an owner of at least a 20 percent interest in the enterprise in which the employee is employed. The executive short duties test requires that the employee have a primary duty of managing the enterprise (or a recognized department or subdivision thereof) and customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees.

The proposed regulations would streamline the current regulations by eliminating the separate long and short tests, and substituting a single standard duties test in proposed § 541.100. The proposed standard duties test would provide that an exempt executive employee must: (1) Have a primary duty of managing the enterprise in which the employee is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof; (2) customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees; and (3) 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. This standard test, consisting of the current short test requirements plus a third objective requirement taken from the long test, represents a middle ground between the current long and short tests.

This streamlining and simplification of the current executive exemption regulations will eliminate the long test subsections regarding the percentage restrictions on nonexempt work and the discretionary powers requirement. We propose to eliminate these subsections for several reasons. Because of its outdated salary level, the long test has, as a practical matter, not been operative for many years. Reintroducing its requirements now would add new complexity and burdens to the exemption tests. The tests are complex and require time-testing managers for the duties they perform, hour-by-hour in a typical work week. Employers are not generally required to maintain any records of daily or weekly hours worked by exempt employees (
see
29 CFR 516.3), let alone perform a moment-by-moment examination of an employee's specific duties performed or discretionary powers exercised. Yet reactivating the long test's limitations on nonexempt work could impose such significant new monitoring requirements (and, indirectly, new recordkeeping burdens) for employers to analyze the substance of each particular

employee's daily and weekly tasks in order to be confident of any claimed exemption. Further, historically, deciding which specific activities were not inherently an “essential part of and necessarily incident to” the exempt work proved to be a subjective and difficult standard to apply for employers, employees, as well as Wage and Hour Division investigators. The discretionary powers test has similarly proved to be a subjective and difficult standard to apply. Moreover, making such finite determinations would be made even more difficult in the aftermath of the decisions in
Donovan
v.
Burger King, Corp.
, 675 F.2d 516 (2nd Cir. 1982),
Donovan
v.
Burger King Corp.
, 672 F.2d 221 (1st Cir. 1982), and similar judicial rulings which hold that an exempt employee's managerial duties can be carried out at the same time the employee performs nonexempt manual tasks. Accordingly, given these developments in judicial construction of the law, the Department is of the view that the discretionary powers provision and the percentage limitations on particular duties formerly applied under the now dormant long test are not useful criteria that should be reintroduced for defining the executive exemption in today's work place.

The proposed regulations at § 541.101 would recognize as an exempt executive any employee who owns at least a 20 percent equity interest in the enterprise in which the employee is employed. Section 541.102 of the proposed regulations would continue the principle that an employee in “sole charge” of an independent establishment or a physically separated branch establishment may qualify as an exempt executive. “Sole charge” of an establishment is defined to include the senior employee with authority to make decisions regarding day-to-day operations and to direct the work of other employees. These provisions appear in the current regulations as exceptions to the percentage restrictions on non-exempt work under the former long test, in recognition of the due weight to be given the freedom from direct supervision and the high degree of executive responsibility enjoyed by the top person in charge of a separate business location, as well as the special status of a partial equity owner of an enterprise. The Department believes that these continue to be valid concepts for special status as executives under the proposed restructured regulations as well. The Department seeks comments on whether the salary level and/or salary basis requirements should be eliminated as unnecessary for sole charge executives and business owners. We have proposed to eliminate those requirements only for the 20 percent owner, based upon our belief that such an individual likely will share in the profits of the enterprise and that this is an adequate substitute indicator of exempt status.

The proposed regulations also would reorganize, simplify, streamline and update the regulations in other ways. The proposed regulations utilize objective, plain language in an attempt to make the regulations understandable to employees and employee representatives, small business owners and human resource professionals. We also propose to eliminate outdated and uninformative examples and to update definitions of key terms and phrases. The proposed regulations would move a number of sections pertaining to salary issues (current §§ 541.117, 541.118) to a new subpart G (discussed below), where all such provisions will be consolidated. Other sections relevant to several or all of the exemption categories (such as the definition of primary duty and a section regarding application of the exemptions to trainees) would move to a proposed new subpart H (Definitions and Miscellaneous Provisions) to eliminate unnecessary repetition. The following sections of the current regulations have been edited and moved to proposed new subpart H:

Current Section . . . Moved to . . .
Proposed section

541.101 General
541.702

541.103 Primary duty
541.700

541.108 Work directly and closely related
541.703

541.109 Emergencies
541.705

541.110 Occasional tasks
541.706

541.111 Nonexempt work generally
541.702

541.116 Trainees
541.704

Section 541.102 of the current regulations, entitled “Management,” has been modified and moved to proposed section 541.103.

Section 541.115 of the current regulations, entitled “Working foremen,” has been moved to proposed § 541.106 and renamed, “Working supervisors,” although no substantive changes are intended. A new provision on supervisors in retail establishments has been added as proposed § 541.107. Both 541.106 and 541.107 address the difficult issue of classifying employees who have both exempt supervisory duties and non-exempt duties, and the Department invites comments on whether these sections have appropriately distinguished exempt and non-exempt employees. Section 541.106 provides, as in the current regulation, that an employee with a primary duty of ordinary production work is not exempt even if the employee also has some supervisory responsibilities. This situation often occurs in a factory setting where a collective bargaining unit employee who works on a production line also has some responsibility to direct the work of other bargaining unit employees. Another example is a police officer who directs the work of other police officers on the conduct of an investigation but is also a member of a bargaining unit. Bargaining unit members do not become exempt employees simply because they are given some supervisory responsibilities.

The definition of the term “department or subdivision” remains at § 541.104, and the definition of “two or more employees” remains at § 541.105. The Department invites comments on whether the supervision of “two or more employees” required for exemption should be modified to include “the customary or regular leadership, alone or in combination with others, of two or more other employees.”

Section 541.106 of the current regulations, entitled “Authority to hire or fire,” is proposed to be deleted. The text in this section does not contribute to any further explanation of the requirement, and no further explanation seems necessary. Section 541.107 of the current regulations, entitled “Discretionary powers,” and § 541.112 of the current regulations, “Percentage limitations on nonexempt work,” are also deleted from the proposed rule for the reasons discussed above.

Subpart C, Administrative Employees, §§ 541.200-.207

To qualify as an exempt administrative employee under the current regulations, an employee must be paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of not less than $155 per week and meet the “long” duties test, or earn $250 per week and meet the “short” duties test. The long test requires that an exempt administrative employee have a primary duty of either performing office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers; or performing functions in the administration of a school system, or educational establishment or institution, in work directly related to academic instruction or training. In addition, the current regulations require that an administrative employee: Customarily and regularly exercise discretion and

independent judgment; regularly and directly assist another exempt employee or perform work along specialized or technical lines requiring special training, experience or knowledge under only general supervision
or
perform special assignments and tasks under only general supervision; and devote no more than 20 percent (or as much as 40 percent in retail or service establishments) of work hours in a week to activities that are not directly and closely related to the performance of exempt work. The short test requires that the employee have a primary duty of performing office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations, which must include work requiring the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. Under both tests, when considering whether an employee's work is “directly related to management policies or general business operations” the regulations and the courts assess whether the work is “related to the administrative operations of the business as distinguished from production”—known as the “production versus staff dichotomy”—and whether the work is “of substantial importance to the management or operation of the business.”

The current duties test for administrative employees is the most difficult to apply of all the duties tests. The requirement that the employee exercise “discretion and independent judgment,” for instance, has generated significant confusion and litigation, as noted in the GAO report discussed above. This rule has been interpreted to deny the exemption to an employee who follows a procedures manual, even though most employees in the modern workplace are required to operate within standard procedures. The “production versus staff dichotomy” also is difficult to apply uniformly in the 21st century workplace.

The proposed regulations at § 541.200 would retain the requirement that an exempt administrative employee have a “primary duty” of “performing office or non-manual work related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers,” but replace the “discretion and independent judgment” requirement with a new requirement that the employee hold “a position of responsibility” with the employer.

The primary duty requirement of “performing office or non-manual work related to the management or general business operations” is defined in a new § 541.201. New § 541.201 clarifies that this requirement refers to the type of work performed by the employee and includes an illustrative list of the types of work areas that meet this requirement: tax, finance, accounting, auditing, quality control, purchasing, procurement, advertising, marketing, research, safety and health, personnel management, human resources, employee benefits, labor relations, public relations, government relations and similar activities. The Department invites comments on any other areas that should be included in this list and on any areas that should be deleted. Like the proposed changes to the executive exemption, the proposed administrative exemption focuses on “primary duty” and eliminates the percentage restrictions on non-exempt work currently required by the now-inoperative long duties test, for the same reasons discussed above under the executive exemption.

The proposed rule would also reduce the emphasis on the so-called “production versus staff” dichotomy in distinguishing between exempt and non-exempt workers, while retaining the concept that an exempt administrative employee must be engaged in work related to the management or general business operations of the employer or of the employer's customers. These changes are needed to reflect emerging case law in this area. For example, the court in
Piscione
v.
Ernst & Young,
171 F.3d 527 (7th Cir. 1999), examined whether an employee's duties were directly related to Ernst & Young's management policies or general business operations or those of the firm's clients. The employee worked as a consultant in the firm's Human Resources Consulting Group on several multi-million dollar defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans in which thousands of individuals participated. The employee's work involved benefits calculations, actuarial valuations, government filings, compliance testing, and client advice. The court stated that this work influenced the internal business operations and policies of Ernst & Young's clients with regard to their benefit plans. The employee was the primary contact for several clients; the employee identified problems with their plans and suggested solutions, and the employee offered suggestions to clients regarding how to improve their efficiency. The court rejected the argument that, because the employee provided clients with reports and government forms to file, the work was production work. Rather, the employee was an advisory specialist or consultant whose work was exempt. In addition, the court found that the employee contributed to the management policies of Ernst & Young because the employee played a major role in developing new methods for improving client services and the timeliness of firm operations.

The proposed § 541.200 also contains a second requirement for the administrative exemption relating to the importance of the work performed or the high level of competence required by the work performed—a requirement that an exempt employee must hold a “position of responsibility.” The term “position of responsibility” is defined in the proposed regulations at new § 541.202. To meet this new “position of responsibility” requirement, an employee must either (1) perform work of substantial importance, or (2) employ a high level of skill or training. The concept of “work of substantial importance” has been in the interpretive regulations since 1950, as a factor for determining whether a worker is an exempt administrative employee. The proposed regulations at new § 541.204 define this phrase based on language in the current regulations and include a revised list illustrating the types of activities that are generally considered of “substantial importance” for purposes of the exemption including: Formulating or interpreting management policies; providing consultation and expert advice to management; making or recommending decisions that have a substantial impact on business operations or finances; analyzing and recommending changes to operating practices; planning long or short-term business objectives; analyzing data, drawing conclusions and recommending changes; and handling complaints, arbitrating disputes or resolving grievances. The Department invites comments on any additional activities that should be included in this list and on any activities that should be deleted. The second alternative for meeting the “position of responsibility” requirement, “work requiring a high level of skill or training,” defined in the proposed regulations at new § 541.205, would ensure that the administrative exemption is not denied to a highly trained and skilled employee who performs administrative functions merely because the employee uses a procedures manual, so long as the manual contains information that can only be interpreted properly by someone with a high level of specialized skills or training, as opposed to a manual in which the employee simply looks up the correct answer for a particular set of circumstances. As reflected in the GAO report noted above,

it has become commonplace for employees in the modern work place to use procedures manuals and written guidelines as standard practices for achieving quality control and efficiency.

The administrative exemption is the most challenging of the § 13(a)(1) exemptions to define and delimit, and the “discretion and independent judgment” requirement has become increasingly difficult to apply with uniformity in the 21st century workplace. Thus, the Department proposes to delete this requirement and replace it with the requirement that an employee hold a “position of responsibility.” The Department specifically seeks comments on whether the “discretion and independent judgment” requirement should be deleted entirely, retained as a third alternative for meeting the “position of responsibility” requirement, or retained by itself but modified to provide better guidance on distinguishing exempt administrative employees. The Department invites commenters to submit alternative proposed regulatory language for either “discretion and independent judgment” or “position of responsibility.” The Department solicits comment on how employers currently interpret the “discretion and independent judgment” requirement, and whether individuals currently exempt under that requirement would continue to be exempt under the new “position of responsibility” requirement.

Finally, the proposed regulations also would reorganize, simplify, streamline and update the regulations in other ways. The proposed regulations utilize objective, plain language; eliminate outdated and uninformative examples; and update definitions of key terms and phrases. As with the executive exemption, the proposal for the administrative exemption would move a number of sections pertaining to salary issues (current §§ 541.211, 541.212 and 541.213) to subpart G, and other sections relevant to several or all of the exemption categories would move to the proposed subpart H (Definitions and Miscellaneous Provisions) to eliminate unnecessary repetition. For example, current § 541.203 entitled “Nonmanual work” is moved to proposed new § 541.703. Current § 541.206 entitled “Primary duty” is merged with current § 541.103 and moved to proposed new § 541.700. Current § 541.208 entitled “Directly and closely related” is combined with current §§ 541.108, 541.202, and 541.307 and moved to proposed new § 541.702. Current § 541.210 entitled “Trainees, administrative” is combined with current § 541.116 (“Trainees, executive”) and current § 541.310 (“Trainees, professional”) and moved to proposed new § 541.704. Provisions related to the administration of educational institutions in current §§ 541.2, 541.201(c), 541.202(e), and 541.215 have been consolidated and moved to new § 541.206; no substantive changes are intended by this consolidation.

Subpart D, Professional Employees, §§ 541.300-.304

The current regulations pertaining to the professional exemption contain four separate categories of exempt employees: learned professionals, artistic professionals, teachers, and computer professionals. As with the executive and administrative exemptions, the regulations contain both “short” and “long” duties tests, depending upon the salary level of the employee. The long test contains a separate primary duty requirement for each of the four categories of employees. The long test for learned professionals requires that the primary duty consist of work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study, as distinguished from a general academic education and from an apprenticeship, and from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes. For creative professionals, the primary duty must consist of work that is original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor (as opposed to work which can be produced by a person endowed with general manual or intellectual ability and training), and the result of which depends primarily on the invention, imagination, or talent of the employee. For teachers, the primary duty must consist of teaching, tutoring, instructing, or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge by an employee who is employed and engaged in this activity as a teacher in the school system or educational establishment or institution by which the person is employed. The duties tests for computer employees are discussed in subpart E. The long test also requires that an exempt employee: Perform work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; do work that is predominantly intellectual and varied in character, such that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time; and devote no more than 20 percent of work hours in a week to activities that are not an essential part of and necessarily incident to exempt work. The short test in the current regulations for both learned professionals and teachers contains the specific primary duty requirement discussed above, and requires that the employee perform work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment. For artistic professionals, the work must require invention, imagination or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor.

The proposed regulations pertaining to the professional employee exemption would make changes similar to those we propose for the executive and administrative exemptions. The goal is to clarify and simplify the regulations defining the professional employee exemption, while remaining consistent with the purposes of the FLSA. For ease of reference, and making no substantive changes, we propose to move the provisions pertaining to computer professionals to new subpart E, which will contain all information pertinent to such employees. We also propose to simplify the regulations by eliminating the separate short and long tests for each of the remaining three categories and substituting a single standard duties test for each. This restructuring and simplification would eliminate the percentage limitation on nonexempt work and the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment requirement. As discussed above in connection with similar proposed changes to the executive and administrative exemptions, we are proposing to eliminate these subsections because they have proven difficult standards to apply uniformly.

For learned professionals, the proposed new standard test in § 541.301 would provide that employees qualify for exemption as a learned professional if they have a primary duty of performing office or non-manual work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, but which also may be acquired by an equivalent combination of intellectual instruction and work experience. This proposed standard test for learned professionals would focus on the knowledge of the employee and how that knowledge is used in everyday work, not on the educational path followed to obtain that knowledge. Although some flexibility to focus on the worker's knowledge exists in the current regulation, it is very limited and rarely used. The clarified test reflects changes in the 21st century workplace in how some “knowledge workers” acquire specialized learning and skills: in the modern workplace, some

employees acquire advanced knowledge through a combination of formal college-level education, training and work experience, even where other employees in that field customarily acquire advanced knowledge by obtaining a baccalaureate or advanced degree. The proposed changes would clarify that, so long as such an employee's level of advanced knowledge is equivalent to the knowledge possessed by an employee with the typical academic degree generally required by the profession, the employee may qualify as an exempt professional. Thus, for example, an employee who obtained advanced knowledge by completing college courses in a field such as engineering, and who worked in that field for a number of years, could qualify for exemption if the knowledge acquired was equivalent to that of an employee with a baccalaureate degree in engineering. We have not proposed any specific formula in the regulations for determining the equivalencies of intellectual instruction and qualifying work experience, although some examples from the current rule have been included and expanded. Public comments are invited on whether the regulations should specify such equivalencies.

The view that several years of specialized training plus intensive on-the-job training for a number of additional years may be equated with a college degree in certain fields has found support in reported judicial decisions. For example, the professional exemption has been applied to employees with a combination of training and academics in
Leslie
v.
Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc.,
899 F. Supp. 1578 (D. Miss. 1995). In Leslie, the court concluded that an employee who had completed three years of engineering study at a university and had many years of experience in the field of engineering was properly classified as a professional employee, even though the employee did not satisfy one of the usual minimum qualifications for an engineering position of having a bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline. The court considered the employee's combination of education and experience as satisfying the requirement for a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study.

For creative professionals, we propose to adopt the current short test, slightly modified, as the new standard test in proposed § 541.302. This new standard test would apply the creative professional exemption to any employee with the primary duty of “performing work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.” This language, although simplified, is not intended to make any material changes from the existing regulations. This standard was applied in the case of
Freeman
v.
National Broadcasting Company, Inc.,
80 F.3d 78 (2nd Cir. 1996), in which employees who researched facts, developed story elements, interviewed subjects, wrote scripts, and supervised the editing of videotape were deemed to have been correctly classified as artistic professional employees. On the other hand, employees of small news organizations who spent their time gathering facts about routine community events such as municipal, school board, and city council meetings, and gathering information from the police blotter and real estate transaction reports, and then reporting those facts in a standard format were deemed not to be artistic professional employees in
Reich
v.
Newspapers of New England,
44 F.3d 1060 (1st Cir. 1995) and
Reich
v.
Gateway Press, Inc.,
13 F.3d 685 (3d Cir. 1994).

The standard test for teachers in proposed section 541.303 would be unchanged from the current short test, with the exception of the deletion of the requirement that the employee's work require the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, a requirement that, as discussed above, has engendered significant confusion. Provisions on teachers from current §§ 541.3, 541.301(g), and 541.314 have been consolidated into proposed new § 541.303. The minor editorial changes are not intended to cause any substantive changes.

In addition, the proposed regulations utilize objective, plain language that can be easily understood by employees, small business owners and human resource professionals, and eliminate outdated and uninformative examples. The proposed regulations also would address a number of specific occupations that have been the subject of ambiguity and litigation. For example, we propose to update and clarify the circumstances under which employees working as newspaper journalists or as radio or television commentators are exempt, because the case law regarding such employees has been evolving over the years, and the existing regulations discussing such employees are outdated.

Provisions of the current regulations in §§ 541.3 and 541.314 that provide an exception to the salary or fee requirements for physicians and lawyers have been consolidated and moved to proposed § 541.304. Current § 541.307 entitled “Essential part of and necessarily incident to” has been combined with current § 541.108 (“Work directly and closely related”), 541.202 (“Categories of work”), and § 541.208 (“Directly and closely related”), and moved to proposed new § 541.702 (“Directly and closely related”), for a streamlined discussion of the principles for distinguishing exempt and nonexempt work. Although these sections have been consolidated and simplified, we do not intend any substantive changes.

Finally, we propose to move sections that pertain to salary issues (§§ 541.311, 541.312 and 541.313) to subpart G, where all such issues will be consolidated. Other sections relevant to several or all of the exemption categories (such as the definition of primary duty, a section regarding application of the exemption to trainees, and a section discussing nonexempt work generally) would move to the proposed subpart H (Definitions and Miscellaneous Provisions) to eliminate unnecessary repetition. Current § 541.305 entitled “Discretion and judgment” and current § 541.309 entitled “20-percent nonexempt work limitation” have been deleted from the proposed regulations for the same reasons similar changes are being proposed in the executive and administrative exemptions as discussed above.

Subpart E, Computer Employees Exemption, §§ 541.400-.403

The exemption for employees in computer occupations has a unique legislative and regulatory history. Prior to 1991, the interpretative regulations acknowledged that employees in various computer-related occupations could have supervisory or managerial duties meeting the exemption for “executive” or “administrative” employees, provided that all the applicable regulatory tests were otherwise met. However, the regulations did not recognize computer employees as exempt “learned” professionals absent a showing that specialized, prolonged academic education and training was an essential prerequisite for entry into the computer field. At the time, colleges and universities did not consistently recognize computer sciences as a
bona fide
academic discipline under which standard licensing, certification, or registration procedures were being followed. Thus, before 1990, employees in computer occupations were rarely recognized as exempt “learned” professionals and many also did not perform duties

meeting all the requirements for the executive or administrative exemptions. Of course, much has changed since then, and today “computer scientists” who possess advanced academic degrees in the computer field are routinely recognized as exempt professionals.

In November 1990, Congress enacted legislation directing the Department to issue regulations permitting computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, and other similarly-skilled professional workers to qualify for exemption under FLSA section 13(a)(1). This enactment also extended the exemption to employees in such computer occupations if paid on an hourly basis at a rate at least 6
1/2
times the minimum wage. Final implementing regulations were issued in 1992 following public notice and comment procedures (
see
29 CFR 541.3(a)(4) and 541.303; 57 FR 46744, Oct. 9, 1992; 57 FR 47163, Oct. 14, 1992). However, when Congress increased the minimum wage in 1996, that law included some of the Department's regulatory language as a separate statutory exemption under a new FLSA section 13(a)(17). The 1996 enactment also froze the hourly compensation test at $27.63 (which equaled 6
1/2
times the former $4.25 minimum wage). The original 1990 statute was not affected by the 1996 enactment.

Accordingly, under the current regulations, an exempt computer employee must have a primary duty of performing work requiring theoretical and practical application of highly-specialized knowledge in computer systems analysis, programming, or software engineering. In addition, an exempt computer employee must be engaged in performing these activities as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly-skilled worker in the computer software field. Finally, under the current regulations, an exempt computer employee must consistently exercise discretion and judgment, and be paid not less than $250 per week on a salary basis or not less than $27.63 an hour if paid an hourly rate.

The proposed regulations would consolidate and condense all of the regulatory guidance on the computer occupations exemption into a new regulatory subpart E by combining provisions of the current regulations found at §§ 541.3(a)(4), 541.205(c)(7), and 541.303. This new subpart will collect in one place the substance of the original 1990 enactment, the 1992 final regulations, and the 1996 enactment. The key regulatory language that resulted from the 1990 enactment is now substantially codified in section 13(a)(17) of the Act, and thus no substantive changes have been made to that language. However, consistent with changes in the professional exemption, the proposal deletes the additional requirement that an exempt computer employee must consistently exercise discretion and judgment. Further, the former regulatory text has been edited and streamlined to provide a more concise presentation, and the structure has been modified to conform to similar changes proposed in the professional exemption. Because of the tremendously rapid pace of significant changes occurring in the information technology industry, we have avoided citing specific job titles as examples of exempt workers, as they tend to quickly become outdated once included in the regulatory text. The Department recognizes that the computer employee exemption has been particularly confusing, and invites comments on any further clarifications possible under the statute.

Subpart F, Outside Sales Employees, §§ 541.500-.504

Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA contains a specific and separate exemption for any employee employed “in the capacity of outside salesman.” Under the existing regulations, outside sales employees must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's places of business making sales or obtaining orders or contracts for services or the use of facilities. (“Inside sales” employees are not within the scope of this statutory exemption for “outside sales” employees.) The regulatory interpretations examine whether any given employee's chief duty or primary function is to make sales or take orders while away from the employer's premises, by analyzing the character of the job as a whole, to distinguish exempt outside sales employees from other nonexempt occupations (
e.g.
, route delivery personnel).

Under the current regulations, outside sales employees also may not exceed a 20 percent tolerance, per work week, performing duties unrelated to their own outside sales or solicitations. Activities that are incidental to, and in conjunction with, their own outside sales or solicitations, including incidental deliveries and collections, are not counted against the 20 percent nonexempt work limitation. The 20 percent limit is based not upon the employee's own hours of work performed, but upon the hours worked by other nonexempt employees of the employer who perform the kind of nonexempt work performed by the outside sales employee. If no one else performs such nonexempt work, the base applied is 40 hours, and the amount of nonexempt work allowed is eight hours per week. There is no salary or fee requirement for the outside sales employee exemption.

In keeping with similar proposed changes to the other exemptions in this part, and to simplify the outside sales exemption, the Department proposes to adopt a primary duty concept similar to the other exemptions, and to eliminate the particularly confusing 20 percent restriction on nonexempt work by outside sales employees. By eliminating this percentage limitation, the Department proposes to avoid any necessity that the employer track hours of outside sales employees. This will provide a consistent approach between this exemption and the exemptions for executive, administrative and professional employees. The essential elements required for exemption would continue,
i.e.
, the outside sales employee's primary duty must be to make sales or obtain orders or contracts for services or the use of facilities, and the employee must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's place of business performing such duty. Outdated illustrations and redundant examples have also been deleted from the regulations, but no substantive changes are intended by these deletions. Finally, although the FLSA refers to the “outside salesman,” we propose replacing this gender-specific term and refer instead to the “outside sales employee.” The discussion of nonexempt work generally in current § 541.506 has been incorporated into proposed new § 541.701, and the discussion of outside sales trainees in current § 541.508 has been incorporated into proposed new § 541.704. As noted above and in connection with similar proposed changes to the executive, administrative and professional exemptions, the 20-percent limitation on nonexempt work in current § 541.507 is proposed to be deleted.

Subpart G, Compensation Requirements, §§ 541.600-.606

Salary Levels

Salary level tests have been included as part of the exemption criteria since the original regulations of 1938. Under the current rules, most executive, administrative and professional employees must earn a minimum salary

level to qualify for the exemption.
14

Employees paid below the minimum salary level are not exempt, irrespective of their job duties and responsibilities. Employees paid a salary above the minimum level in the regulations may be exempt if they also meet the salary basis and job duties tests.

14
There is no salary level test for outside sales employees and some professional employees (teachers, doctors, lawyers). Such employees are exempt regardless of their salary.

To qualify for exemption under the existing regulations, an employee currently must earn a minimum salary of $155 per week for the executive and administrative exemptions, and $170 per week for the professional exemption. Employees paid above these minimum salary levels must meet a “long” duties test to qualify for the exemption. The current regulations also provide that employees paid above a higher (or “upset”) salary rate of $250 per week are exempt if they meet a “short” duties test. As explained above, the short tests contain fewer requirements and are less burdensome to meet.
15

The most recent updates to these minimum salary levels were in 1975. In January 1981, revisions to increase the salary rates by the outgoing Carter Administration were stayed indefinitely by the incoming Reagan Administration. Because the salary levels have not been increased since 1975, the existing salary levels are outdated and no longer useful in distinguishing between exempt and nonexempt employees.

15
Also, in 1996, Congress amended the FLSA to exempt certain hourly-paid computer professionals paid at least $27.63 per hour ($57,470 per year, assuming 40 hours per week).

Proposed Standard Test.
Under the proposal, the minimum salary level to qualify for exemption from the FLSA minimum wage and overtime requirements as an executive, administrative, or professional employee would be increased from $155 per week to $425 per week. This salary level would be referred to as the “standard test,” thus eliminating the “short test” and “long test” terminology. The separate, higher salary level test for professional employees also would be eliminated.

Most stakeholders agreed that the salary levels need to be increased. A full-time minimum wage worker earns $206 per week ($5.15/hour x 40 hours)—an amount above the current long test levels and closely approaching the current short test level. As a result, under the current regulations, no full-time salaried worker is automatically exempt by earning below the long test level, and most salaried employees are tested for exemption under the short tests. Salary level was once viewed as being the best indicator of exempt status. Today, the existing salary level tests are of no help in distinguishing exempt employees from non-exempt workers. Accordingly, the question is not whether the Department should raise the salary levels, but by how much.

One suggestion for increasing the current salary levels is to adjust the existing rates, adopted in 1975, to account for inflation. The 1999 General Accounting Office report adjusted the 1975 salary levels for inflation based on 1998 BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, resulting in the following salary levels: $470/week for the executive and administrative long test; $515/week for the professional long tests; and $757/week for the short test.
16

In January 2001, the Department published a report that applied 1999 CPI data to inflation adjust the current salary levels to $480/week for the long test and $774/week for the short test.
17

16
Fair Labor Standards Act: White Collar Exemptions in the Modern Work Place, GAO/HEHS-99-164, September 30, 1999.

17
The “New Economy” and Its Impact on Executive, Administrative and Professional Exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), January 2001, pp. 71-73.

However, several considerations weigh against mechanically adjusting the 1975 salary levels for inflation. First, the Department is proposing a different, standard duties test. Consequently, equivalency to either the current long and short test salary levels is not appropriate. Second, although adjusting the existing rates for inflation might provide the simplest, mechanical approach, the Department is concerned about the impact such adjusted salary levels would have on certain segments of industry and geographic areas of the country, particularly in the retail industry and in rural areas in the South, which tend to pay lower salaries. Third, mechanically adjusting for inflation presumes that the salary levels set in 1975 are precisely the appropriate baseline; and that the nature of work and the relationship between job duties and compensation practices have not changed in the intervening years since 1975. Fourth, the regulatory history has looked to information on actual salaries and incomes, not inflation-adjusted amounts. The 1949 Weiss Report, for example, considered and rejected proposals to increase salary levels based upon the change in the cost of living from the 1940 levels.
18

18
“Actual data showing the increases in the prevailing minimum salary levels of bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees since October 1940 would be the best evidence of the appropriate salary increases for the revised regulations. * * * The change in the cost of living which was urged by several witnesses as a basis for determining the appropriate levels is, in my opinion, not a measure of the rise in prevailing minimum salary levels.” Weiss Report, p. 12.

Because of these concerns, the Department believes it would be more appropriate to examine available data on actual salary levels currently being paid in the economy. We reviewed a preliminary report on actual salary levels based on the BLS year 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) Outgoing Rotations data set. This data included full-time, salaried workers aged 16 and above, but excluded the self-employed, agricultural workers, volunteers and federal employees (who are all not subject to the salary level tests in the part 541 regulations), broken out by industry and geographic area.

In considering this data and various salary levels in the development of this proposal, the Department was guided by the prescient analysis of a 1958 Department of Labor report recommending changes to the salary levels:

The salary tests have thus been set for the country as a whole * * * with appropriate consideration given to the fact that the same salary cannot operate with equal effect as a test in high-wage and low-wage industries and regions, and in metropolitan and rural areas, in an economy as complex and diversified as that of the United States. Despite the variation in effect, however, it is clear that the objectives of the salary tests will be accomplished if the levels selected are set at points near the lower end of the current range of salaries for each of the categories. Such levels will assist in demarcating the “
bona fide
” executive, administrative and professional employees without disqualifying any substantial number of such employees.

It is my conclusion, from all the evidence, that the lower portion of the range of prevailing salaries will be most nearly approximated if the tests are set at about the levels at which no more than about 10 percent of those in the lowest-range region, or in the smallest size establishment group, or in the smallest-sized city group, or in the lowest-wage industry of each of the categories would fail to meet the tests. Although this may result in loss of exemption for a few employees who might otherwise qualify for exemption, * * * in the light of the objectives discussed above, this is a reasonable exercise of the Administrator's authority to “delimit” as well as define.
19

19
Report and Recommendations on Proposed Revision of Regulations, Part 541 under the Fair Labor Standards Act, March 3, 1958, by Harry S. Kantor, Assistant Administrator, Presiding Officer.

As in the 1958 analysis, the Department looked to “points near the

lower end of the current range of salaries” to determine an appropriate salary level for the standard test—although we settled upon on the lowest 20 percent, rather than the lowest 10 percent, because of the proposed change from the “short” and “long” test structure in the proposed rule and because the data included some salaried employees who would not meet the duties tests for exemption. Applying this analysis, and also considering adjustments to the current salary levels for inflation, the Department proposes a standard salary level test of $425/week. Under this level, approximately the bottom 20 percent of salaried employees would fall below the minimum salary requirement and be automatically entitled to overtime pay.

Proposed special rule for highly compensated employees.
The proposed regulations also include in § 541.601 a special, streamlined rule for employees paid $65,000 or more annually. Under this proposed rule for highly compensated employees, employees paid $65,000 or more annually and performing non-manual work would be exempt if they have an identifiable executive, administrative or professional function as described in the standard duties tests. These highly compensated employees would not have to meet all the elements of the standard duties test to qualify for the exemption as a highly compensated employee. For example, an employee who supervises two workers but does not participate in any hiring or termination decisions in the company would still be exempt because the employee has a function that is identifiable as an executive function. In addition, the proposed special rule for highly compensated employees would permit counting base salary, commissions, non-discretionary bonuses and other non-discretionary compensation in determining whether an employee earns $65,000 or more annually. To qualify as a highly compensated employee under the proposed regulation, any commissions or non-discretionary bonuses would have to be settled and paid out to the employee as due on at least a monthly basis. An employee who works only a portion of a year, whether because the employee begins work during the year or leaves before the end of the year, must be guaranteed a
pro rata
portion of the $65,000 annual guarantee. The pro rata portion should be based upon the number of weeks the employee works in such a position. If an employee's total annual compensation does not total at least the guaranteed $65,000 by the end of the year, the proposed regulation would allow the employer to make a payment by the next pay period sufficient to bring the employee to the guaranteed level. The employer is not required to make this payment; however, if the employer elects not to make the one-time payment, the employee is not exempt as a highly compensated employee.
20

20
Of course, if all of the requirements in either the executive, administrative or professional employee tests established in §§ 541.100, 541.200 or 541.300 are satisfied, the employer still would be able to claim the appropriate exemption.

To determine an appropriate salary level for highly compensated employees, the Department looked to points near the higher end of the current range of salaries and found that the top 20 percent of all salaried employees earned above $65,000 annually. This level is consistent with setting the proposed standard test salary level at the bottom 20 percent of salaried employees.

Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
Prior to the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1989 (Pub. L. 101-157), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa were subject to wage order proceedings under the Act, in lieu of the FLSA minimum wage, and consequently lower salary test levels traditionally were established for employees in these jurisdictions. The 1989 Amendments removed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands from the Act's wage order proceedings, and provided that the U.S. mainland minimum hourly wage rates under section 6(a)(1) of the Act would apply in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. For this reason, the proposed regulations would apply the mainland salary test level of $425 per week in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Employees in American Samoa remain subject to wage order proceedings under the Act. Consequently, the proposed regulations would apply a special, lower salary test level of $360 per week for executive, administrative and professional employees in American Samoa. This special salary level maintains approximately the same ratio to the mainland test in the current regulations (84% for executive and administrative workers). Similarly, the proposal would apply a special test for highly compensated employees in American Samoa of $55,000 annually. Comments are invited on whether the 84 percent ratio is appropriate.

Comments on salary levels.
The Department invites comments on these proposed salary levels and on any alternative salary level amounts or methodologies for determining the appropriate salary level. In addition, the Department invites comments on the alternative of removing the salary tests from the regulations entirely and on how the regulations could be structured without the need for any specific salary amounts (relying only on duties tests, for example). The Department also invites comments on the alternative of adopting a “salary only” test for highly compensated employees. Under such an alternative, for example, employees performing non-manual or office work and earning a total annual compensation over a certain amount would automatically be considered exempt, without any reference to the employee's duties.

Salary Basis Test

Under the current regulations, to qualify for the executive, administrative or professional exemption, an employee must be paid on a “salary basis” as defined in § 541.118. The employee must regularly receive a predetermined amount of salary, on a weekly or less frequent basis, that “is not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed.” Thus, with a few exceptions described below, the employee must receive the full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked.

The salary basis test prohibits an employer from making deductions from the salary “for absences occasioned by the employer or by the operating requirements of the business.” In other words, “if the employee is ready, willing, and able to work, deductions may not be made for time when work is not available.” However, the employee does not have to be paid for any work week in which he or she performs no work.

The current salary basis test also prohibits deductions from pay for disciplinary problems, performance issues or for absences caused by jury duty, attendance as a witness, or temporary military leave (although employers may take offsets for jury or military pay) in any week in which an employee performs any work.

The current regulations contain several exceptions to these salary basis rules: An employer may make deductions from the guaranteed pay “when the employee absents himself from work for a day or more for personal reasons, other than sickness or accident.” Deductions also are permitted for absences of a day or more due to sickness or disability, if taken in accordance with a
bona fide
plan, policy or law (workers compensation, for example) providing wage

replacement benefits. Employers also may make deductions from an exempt employee's salary for any hours not worked in the initial and final weeks of employment or for hours taken as unpaid FMLA leave without affecting the exempt status of the employee. Finally, less than full week deductions from pay are permitted for violations of major safety rules.

Under the current rules, an employer can lose the exemption for an entire class of employees for making improper deductions from guaranteed pay, even for highly paid employees. Depending on the facts, improper deductions can “indicate that there was no intention to pay the employee on a salary basis. In such a case, the exemption would not be applicable to him during the entire period when such deductions were being made.” For inadvertent mistakes, however, the regulations provide employers with a “window of correction.” If the facts demonstrate that the prohibited deduction from guaranteed pay was inadvertent, the exemption is not lost if the employer reimburses the employee for such deductions and promises to comply in the future.

In developing options for its proposed rule, the Department considered whether to eliminate the salary basis test. We carefully weighed the need for the salary basis test and concluded that the underlying concept of the test “ guaranteed pay, not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed “ should be retained. The nearly universal practice of paying employees with the requisite status to be bona fide executive, administrative, or professional employees on a salary basis, as the 1949 hearings on the exemption revealed, reflected the understanding that such employees have discretion to manage their time and are not answerable for the number of hours worked or the number of tasks performed. Such employees are not paid by the hour or task, but for the general value of services performed. The salary basis test also describes the
quid pro quo
enjoyed by exempt employees, which distinguishes them from non-exempt workers. Exempt employees are not paid overtime for working over 40 hours in a week. In exchange, the employer must provide a guaranteed salary that cannot be reduced when an employee works less than 40 hours.

The Department also considered amending the salary basis test to permit deductions from pay for cases in which an exempt employee chooses to be absent for a part of a day. But allowing such “pay docking” for partial-day absences would breach the quid pro quo and blur the line between exempt and non-exempt employees. An exempt manager, for example, does not receive extra pay for working 16 hours on a Thursday to complete a project; thus, as a matter of fundamental fairness, an employer should not be allowed to dock the employee's salary for leaving work early on Friday. Of course, an employer can terminate an employee who abuses this salary arrangement.

Although the proposed rule retains the salary basis test and its concept of guaranteed pay in proposed § 541.602, two significant updates are included in the proposal:
Disciplinary Deductions.
The proposed regulations would allow an exception to the no pay-docking rule for deductions from pay for full-day disciplinary suspensions. For example, an employer would be permitted to suspend an exempt employee without pay for reasons such as sexual harassment or workplace violence. The current regulations permit such deductions only for penalties imposed for infractions of safety rules of major significance and for unpaid suspensions for one or more full work weeks (
i.e.
, Monday to Friday). The proposed change would allow employers to suspend exempt employees without pay for discriminatory harassment for two days, four days or 10 days, as appropriate to respond to the misconduct. The Department believes this is a common-sense change that will permit employers to uniformly hold exempt employees to the same standards of conduct as that required of nonexempt, hourly workers.
Safe Harbor Provision.
Under the current regulations, an employer who makes improper deductions from pay can lose the exemption for an entire class of employees. However, as mentioned above, the current rules also include a “window of correction” provision at 541.118(a)(6) under which an employer who inadvertently makes impermissible deductions can, in some circumstances, retain the exemption by reimbursing employees for any improper deductions. Unfortunately, the “window of correction” has proved difficult for the Department to administer and has been the source of considerable litigation. The proposed rule, at 541.603, would clarify the circumstances and the extent to which an improper deduction causes an employee or groups of employees to become nonexempt. The proposed rule maintains the underlying purpose of the current rule that an employer does not lose the FLSA exemption because of isolated incidents of improper pay deductions. Under the proposal, the exemption would be lost only if there is a pattern and practice of improper deductions, and then only for employees in the same job classification and working for the same manager who is responsible for the improper pay docking decision or policy. For example, if one manager at a single company facility routinely docks the pay of engineers for partial-day absences, then all engineers at that one facility whose pay could have been docked by that same manager are not exempt. Engineers at other facilities or working for other managers would remain exempt. Further, the proposed rule would create a new “safe harbor” provision: if an employer has a written policy prohibiting improper pay deductions, notifies employees of that policy and reimburses employees for any improper deductions, then that employer would not lose the exemption for any employees unless the employer's policy prohibiting improper deductions is repeatedly and willfully violated. The Department believes this approach would be much easier to apply uniformly and more consistent with the purposes of the FLSA.

Proposed section 541.604 continues the guidance from current 541.118(b) on allowing payments of additional compensation besides the salary as not being inconsistent with the salary basis of payment, and on pay plans that compute an exempt employee's salary from daily or shift rates if accompanied by the minimum guarantee. The language has been clarified to add hourly compensation plans that include such guarantees, consistent with established enforcement practices, if a reasonable relationship exists between the guaranteed amount and an employee's usual earnings for a normal scheduled work week.

Proposed § 541.605 contains updated guidance on the “fee basis” of payment permitted for administrative and professional employees, taken from current sections 541.213 and 541.313. Proposed § 541.606 provides guidance on payment of required salary amounts “exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities” or “free and clear,” taken from §§ 541.117(c), 541.211(d), and 541.311(d) of the current regulations and expanded to cross-reference 29 CFR 531.32 for more guidance on qualifying “other facilities” similar to board and lodging.

The former “upset salary” provisions that were part of the short tests for executive, administrative and professional employees have been deleted from this proposed rule (current §§ 541.119, 541.214, and 541.315).

Subpart H, Definitions and Miscellaneous Provisions, §§ 541.700-.708

To eliminate unnecessary repetition, the proposed regulations would move definitions and other provisions applicable to several or all of the exemption categories to a new subpart H, Definitions and Miscellaneous Provisions. The proposed subpart H would define “primary duty” in proposed § 541.700; “directly and closely related” in proposed Section 541.702; “exempt and nonexempt work” in proposed § 541.701; and “office or non-manual work” in proposed § 541.703. Subpart H would also contain provisions regarding trainees, emergencies and occasional tasks, combination exemptions, the motion picture producing industry, and employees of public agencies. Most of these provisions have been moved from the existing regulations without substantial change, although some changes have been made to simplify and update the current regulations. Current § 541.602, containing guidance on the percentage limitations on performing nonexempt work for executive and administrative employees in multi-store retailing operations, is proposed to be deleted for the same reasons noted above for eliminating those former long duties test requirements from the executive and administrative exemptions.

IV. Executive Order 12866 and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act

This proposed rule has been drafted and reviewed in accordance with Executive Order 12866, section 1(b), Principles of Regulation. The Department has determined that the proposed rule is an economically significant regulatory action under section 3(f)(1) of Executive Order 12866. Based on a preliminary analysis of the data the rule could have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more. However, the proposed rule is not likely to adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or state, local, or tribal governments or communities; create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency; or materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs or the rights and obligations of recipients thereof.

For similar reasons, the Department has concluded that this proposed rule also is a major rule under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 801
et seq.
). Although it could result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, it is not likely to result in a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic or export markets.

As a result, the Department has prepared a Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis (PRIA) in connection with this proposed rule as required under section 6(a)(3) of the Order and the Office of Management and Budget has reviewed the rule. Copies of the complete PRIA may be obtained from the Department by contacting the Wage and Hour Division at the address and telephone number provided above. The results of the PRIA are summarized below.

Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis

Overview

The proposed changes in the rules for determining whether an employee is exempt as an executive, administrative, or professional (EAP) worker under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will affect virtually all employers covered by the FLSA that employ workers within the scope of the exemptions in 29 CFR part 541. Employers will be affected unless all of their employees are expressly excluded from FLSA coverage by the statute. Excluded from these regulations are the self-employed, agricultural workers, railroad workers, selected occupations in the transportation industries and in automobile dealerships, and most Federal employees subject to separate rules administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. However, 29 CFR part 541 regulations apply to the following Federal agencies: Library of Congress, U.S. Postal Service, Postal Rate Commission, and Tennessee Valley Authority (see 29 U.S.C. 204(f)).

Therefore, employers in all industrial sectors except agriculture, railroads, and private households are subject to the existing and proposed regulations. The regulations also apply to State and local governmental employees.

The PRIA indicates that there are 6.5 million establishments with 109.5 million employees, annual payrolls totaling $2.8 trillion, annual sales revenues of $17.9 trillion, and annual pre-tax profits of $769.5 billion in the industry sectors affected by the proposed rule. Corresponding data based on SBA's size standards for small business entities indicates that over 5.2 million of these establishments are considered to be small businesses. These small firms employ approximately 38.7 million workers with an annual payroll of $940.0 billion. Their total annual sales are estimated to be $5.7 trillion and their annual pre-tax profits are estimated to be $233.9 billion. Approximately 79.8 percent of the affected establishments are considered to be small businesses and they account for 38.8 percent of the employment, 33.7 percent of the payroll, 31.8 percent of the annual sales, and 30.4 percent of the annual pre-tax profits.

Over 87,400 state and local governmental entities will be affected by the proposed rule (3,043 county governments, 19,372 municipal governments, 16,629 township governments, 34,683 special district governments, and 13,726 school district governments). Nationwide, these entities receive more than $1.4 trillion in general revenues, including revenues from taxes, some categories of fees and charges, and intergovernmental transfers. Their direct expenditures exceed $1.6 trillion in the aggregate. State and local governments employ more than 4 million workers and their payrolls exceed $12.6 billion per month.

The following tables summarize the provisions of the current 29 CFR part 541 and the proposed rule that were analyzed in the PRIA.

Table 1.—Weekly Salary Levels in the Current and Proposed Rules

Dollars

Current Rule

Long Test:

Executives
155

Administrative
155

Professionals
170

Short Test
250

Proposed Rule

Standard Test
425

Highly Compensated
1,250

Table 2.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Executive Employees

Current long test (salary and duties)
Current short test (salary and duties)
Proposed standard test (salary and duties)

$155 per week
$250 per week
$425 per week.

Primary duty of the management of the enterprise or a recognized department or subdivision
Primary duty of the management of the enterprise or a recognized department or subdivision
Primary duty of management of the enterprise or a recognized department or subdivision.

Customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees
Customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees
Customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees.

Has authority to hire or fire other employees (or recommendations as to hiring, firing, promotion or other change of status of employees is given particlar weight)

Has authority to hire or fire other employees (or recommendations as to hiring, firing, promotion or other change of status of other employees is given particlar weight).

Customarily and regularly exercises discretionary powers.

Does not devote more than 20 percent (40 percent in retail or service establishments) of time to activities that are not directly and closely related to exempt work.

Table 3.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Administrative Employees

Current long test (salary and duties)
Current short test (salary and duties)
Proposed standard test (salary and duties)

$155 per week
$250 per week
$425 per week.

Primary duty of performing office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers
Primary duty of performing office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers
Primary duty of performing office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers.

Customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment
Customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment
Holds a “position of responsibility” with the employer, defined as either (1) performing work of substantial importance or (2) performing work requiring a high level skill or training.

Regularly and directly assists a proprietor, or exempt executive or administrative employee; or performs specialized or technical work requiring special knowledge under only general supervision; or executes special assignments under only general supervision.

Does not devote more than 20 percent (40 percent in retail or service establishments) of time to activities that are not directly and closely related to exempt work.

Table 4.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Learned Professional Employees

Current long test
(salary and duties)

Current short test
(salary and duties)

Proposed standard test
(salary and duties)

$170 per week
$250 per week
$425 per week.

Primary duty of performing work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study.
Consistently exercises discretion and judgment.
Performs work that is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and is of such character that the output produced or result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time.
Does not devote more than 20 percent of time to activities that are not an essential part of and necessarily incident to exempt work

Primary duty of performing work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study
Consistently exercises discretion and judgment

Primary duty of performing office or non-manual work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, but which also may be acquired by alternative means such as an equivalent combination of intellectual instruction and work experience.

Table 5.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Creative Professional Employees

Current long test
(salary and duties)

Current short test
(salary and duties)

Proposed standard test
(salary and duties)

$170 per week
$250 per week
$425 per week.

Primary duty of performing work that is original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, and the result of which depends primarily on the invention, imagination, or talent of the employee.
Consistently exercises discretion and judgment.
Performs work that is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and is of such character that the output produced or result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time
Does not devote more than 20 percent of time to activities that are not directly and closely related to exempt work

Performs work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor.
Primary duty of performing work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.

Table 6.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Computer Employees

Current long test
(salary and duties)

Current short test
(salary and duties)

Section 13(a)(17) test
(salary and duties)

Proposed Standard Test
(salary and duties)

$170 per week
$250 per week
$27.63 an hour
$425 per week or $27.63 an hour.

Primary duty of performing work requiring theoretical and practical application of highly-specialized knowledge in computer systems analysis, programming, and software engineering
Primary duty of performing work requiring theoretical and practical application of highly-specialized knowledge in computer systems analysis, programming, and software engineering
Primary duty of (A) application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software of system functional applications; or (B) design, development, documentation analysis, creation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user of system design specifications; or (C) design, documentation, testing , creation or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems; or (D) a combination of duties described in (A), (B) and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skills
Primary duty of (A) application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software of system functional applications; or (B) design, development, documentation analysis, creation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user of system design specifications; or (C) design, documentation, testing , creation or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems; or (D) a combination of duties described in (A), (B) and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skills.

Employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer software field
Employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer software field
Employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer software field
Employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer software field.

Consistently exercises discretion and judgment
Consistently exercises discretion and judgment.

Performs work that is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and is of such character that he output produced or result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time.

Does not devote more than 20 percent of time to activities that are not directly and closely related to exempt work.

Table 7.—The Current and Proposed Duties Tests for Outside Sales Employees

Current long test (salary and duties)
Current short test (salary and duties)
Proposed standard test (salary and duties)

None required
None required
None required.

Employed for the purpose of and customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's place of business in making sales; or in obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer
No separate “short” test

Primary duty of making sales; or of obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer
Customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer's place or places of business.

Does not devote more than 20 percent of the hours worked by nonexempt employees of the employer to activities that are not incidental to and in conjunction with the employee's own outside sales or solicitations.

Methodology for Estimating Costs

The principal database used in the PRIA is the 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS). A complete description of the methodology used for determining the employees who are potentially exempt and nonexempt from the overtime requirements of the current and proposed rule is contained in the PRIA available by contacting the Wage and Hour Division at the address and telephone number provided above.

The economic impact of the proposed rule includes two components: One-time implementation costs; and recurring incremental payroll costs incurred by employers for those employees presently treated as exempt from overtime under the current rule, who become nonexempt.

The implementation costs contain two parts. The first part includes the amount of time employers would take to: (1) Read and understand the proposed rule; (2) update and formulate their overtime policies; (3) notify employees of any changes; and (4) all other time taken to implement the proposed rule. The second part of the implementation costs is the amount of time employers would take to review their job categories to determine (1) whether or not a particular job category is exempt or nonexempt under the proposed rule, and (2) how to adjust to the new salary levels and duties tests. To estimate the implementation costs of the proposed rule, the department contacted six human resource specialists from around the country to obtain information on the amount of time small and large businesses would take for each of these activities. High and low estimates of the implementation costs were estimated by varying the amount of time taken to review job categories and other time taken to implement the proposed rule.

The second component of the economic impact of the proposed rule is the recurring incremental payroll costs incurred by employers for those employees presently treated as exempt from overtime under the current rule, who become nonexempt as a result of raising the salary levels and revising the duties tests.

Affected employers would have four choices concerning potential payroll costs: (1) Adhering to a 40 hour work week; (2) paying statutory overtime premiums for affected workers' hours worked beyond 40 per week; (3) raising employees' salaries to levels required for exempt status by the proposed rule; or (4) converting salaried employees' basis of pay to an hourly rate (no less than the federal minimum wage) that results in virtually no (or only a minimal) changes to the total compensation paid to those workers. Employers could also change the duties of currently exempt and nonexempt workers to comply with the proposed rule.

For the second choice above, paying overtime premium pay, employers typically have two options, with differing cost implications, for meeting their statutory overtime obligations. For example, assume an employer paid an employee a fixed salary of $400 per week with no overtime premium pay, for which the employee worked 45 hours per week, and the employer must now begin to pay this employee overtime pay. As one option, the employer could assume that the former weekly salary of $400 represents compensation for a standard 40-hour workweek, and pay this employee in the future time-and-one-half the $10 hourly rate for any overtime hours worked beyond 40 per week. For a 45-hour workweek, total compensation due, including overtime, would equal $475 ((40 hours × $10/hour) + (5 hours × $15/hour) = $475), compared to $400 formerly. As a second option, the employer could pay the fixed salary of $400 per week as total straight time pay for all hours worked in the week (provided it equals or exceeds the federal minimum wage), and pay additional “half-time” for each hour worked beyond 40 in the week. This method of payment is known as a “fixed salary for fluctuating hours” (
see
29 CFR 778.114). For a 45-hour workweek, total compensation due under this method, including overtime, would equal $422.22 ($400 + (($400÷45) ×
1/2
× 5) = $422.22).

The third choice above is straightforward—an employer could simply raise the salary level for currently exempt salaried workers earning less than $22,100 to at least the new proposed salary level or more and have them remain exempt salaried workers.

Nothing in the FLSA would prohibit an employer affected by the proposed rule, or under the current rule, from implementing the fourth choice above that results in virtually no (or only a minimal) increase in labor costs. For example, to pay an hourly rate and time and one-half that rate for 5 hours of overtime in a 45-hour workweek and incur approximately the same total costs as the former $400 weekly salary, the regular hourly rate would compute to $8.421 ((40 hours × $8.421) + (5 hours × (1.5 × $8.421)) = $399.99).

Most employers affected by the proposed rule would be expected to choose the most cost-effective compensation adjustment method that maintains the stability of their work force, pay structure, and output levels. Given the range of options available to an employer confronted with paying overtime to employees previously treated as exempt, the actual payroll cost impact for individual employers could range from near zero to up to the maximum cost impacts estimated in the Department's PRIA. However, for the PRIA it is was assumed that, for any nonexempt employee who satisfies the pertinent duties test, the employer will choose to pay the smaller of either the additional weekly salary required to qualify the employee for exemption or the usual weekly overtime payment for the employee. Thus, the Department's

assessment of costs of the proposed rule reflects a range of upper bound estimates. Actual payroll costs would be expected to be lower than the estimates summarized below and presented in the PRIA because of the payroll adjustment option employers have that could offset the impact of the proposed rule. Moreover, some of the cost is likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, some of the cost is likely to be passed on to business owners and shareholders in the form of lower profits, and some of the cost is likely to be passed on to workers in the form of fewer overtime hours.

Finally, estimated costs are presented as ranges because data limitations prevent the Department from identifying exactly which workers are exempt and nonexempt based on the current and proposed duties tests. The estimates were determined using previous Department and U.S. General Accounting Office methodology and the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and Dunn and Bradstreet. The ranges result from estimating a minimum and maximum number of workers that are likely to change from exempt to nonexempt employees. To estimate the recurring payroll costs of the proposed rule, it was necessary to apply some assumptions to the PRIA data to identify which employees are exempt and nonexempt under the current and proposed rules. Specifically, the Department assumed that for employees in occupations with a combination of exempt and nonexempt duties those with lower salaries would more likely be non-exempt. The Department also assumed that six years or more of work experience would be considered equivalent to a bachelor's degree for the learned professional exemption. For each occupational category with a combination of exempt and nonexempt duties a lower bound and an upper bound estimate of the number of employees who are exempt has been calculated. Finally, it was assumed that for each executive, administrative, or professional employee who becomes nonexempt, the likely incremental payroll cost is the smaller of the additional weekly salary required to qualify for exemption or the usual weekly overtime payment required to be paid to that worker.

Methodology for Estimating Benefits

The benefit estimates are lower bound estimates based on PRIA data

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/fr%3A03-7449. Public record. Not legal advice.