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All employees of the University are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), although some individuals may be exempt from its provisions. Included on this page are summaries of related topics including: Exemption Status, Overtime, and Minimum Wage requirements. For more in-depth detail, please refer to the Additional Resources section at the bottom of this page.

 

EXEMPTION STATUS

"Exemption" refers to whether or not a position is "Exempt" from the provisions of the FLSA.  With this in mind, there are two main categories of positions under FLSA:

  • Non-Exempt – overtime eligible and subject to the provisions of the FLSA.
  • Exempt – not eligible for overtime and exempt from the provisions of the FLSA.

 

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees in non-exempt positions be compensated at time-and-one half rate for all hours worked over 40 in the work week. Time-and-one-half overtime may be compensated in the form of leave or actual pay, at the employer’s discretion. For more information on how to determine overtime hours and what constitutes hours worked, please see Guidelines for the Fair Labor Standards Act (Policy 4320) section 3.1.

 

FLSA law requires that for a position to be considered Exempt, the position must meet BOTH the salary basis test and the job duties test described below:

  1. Salary Basis - To qualify for exemption, employees generally must be paid at least $455 per week ($23,660 annual) on a salary basis. The university’s “wage/adjunct” faculty paid by P14 are considered “salaried” for the purposes of FLSA compliance because they are paid a pre-determined amount each pay period. The salary requirements do not apply to outside sales employees, teachers, and employees practicing law or medicine. Those not engaged in teaching must be paid a minimum of $455 per week to qualify as exempt. Additional record-keeping will be required for any non-teaching faculty member paid on a P14 at a rate less than $455 a week. See Guidelines for the Fair Labor Standards Act (Policy 4320) section 2.5.1 for more detail.
  2. Job Duties – In addition to meeting the above referenced salary basis test, to qualify for an exemption a position must also qualify under one of the following four job duties tests:
    1) Executive
    2) Administrative
    3) Professional
    4) Computer

For more information regarding each of the requirements for each of these please refer to the Department of Labor FLSA website.

 

OVERTIME
Non-exempt employees who work above the standard forty-hour work week are to be compensated at a time and one-half rate for all hours worked above forty. The standard Virginia Tech work week is normally Friday at midnight to the following Friday at midnight. Overtime compensation may be in the form of time and one-half pay or time and one-half leave (overtime leave). Which form of compensation is granted is at the discretion of the employer.

Virginia Tech ultimately retains the overtime liability for all non-exempt employees that it payrolls. Upon the separation of a non-exempt staff employee, overtime leave balances must be paid out. Said employees may amass up to a maximum of 240 hours of overtime. Amounts beyond this must be paid at the time and one-half rate. For more details please see Hours of Work (Policy 4300) and Guidelines for the Fair Labor Standards Act (Policy 4320).

It is the supervisor’s responsibility to maintain a record of all hours worked by non-exempt employees by using the Leave and Hours Worked Report (Form P128). Hardcopy records must be kept in the unit file for a minimum of four years. This is in addition to the online Leave Entry and Reporting Entry Web System database.

Staff employees should request approval of overtime work within a reasonable amount of time prior to the expected date of overtime work. Supervisors should only authorize overtime in exceptional instances of an emergency or temporary nature. In all instances, the duration, nature, and scope of the overtime work should be clearly articulated and freely agreed upon by both the supervisor and employee.

 

MINIMUM WAGE
The FLSA was amended recently to include an increase to the federal minimum wage. The increase is designed to take effect in three steps:

  • to $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007;
  • to $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008;
  • and to $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

Employers of “tipped” employees (i.e., those who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips such as servers in restaurants) may include tips as part of their wages, but employers must pay a direct wage of at least $2.13 per hour if they claim a tip credit. They must also meet certain other conditions as outlined by the FLSA.

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Guidelines for the Fair Labor Standards Act (Policy 4320)
Covers a variety of topics related to FLSA law including: Exempt vs. Non-exempt, minimum wage, overtime pay, compensatory leave, travel time, on-call time and more.

Hours of Work (Policy 4300)

Department of Labor FLSA website

Leave and Hours Worked Report (Form P128)