Notice: The U.S. Department of Labor has increased the salary threshold for the Fair Labor Standards Act to $844 per week or $43,888 per year for a full-year worker. The new rules go into effect July 1, 2024. UW–Madison employees who are impacted by this change will be contacted directly and provided with additional information in the coming months.
The term “primary duty” is the principal, main, major, or most important duty that an employee performs. Determination of an employee’s primary duty must be based on all the facts in each case with the main emphasis on the character of the employee’s entire job.
Factors considered when determining the primary duty of an employee include but are not limited to:
Note: Employees who spend more than 50 percent of their time performing a specific duty will generally, although not always, satisfy the primary duty requirement. In contrast, employees who do not spend more than 50 percent of their time performing a specific duty may meet the primary duty requirement if the other factors (listed above) support such a determination.
Universities of Wisconsin Office of Human Resources reviews each standard job description and makes the determination on the primary duty of the standard job description.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA ) is a federal law that establishes labor standards for public and private sector employers. The law defines a standard work week, establishes a national minimum wage, and establishes parameters for working minors. In addition, the law guarantees overtime for certain positions.
The FLSA provides a set of standards to determine which jobs are covered by the act (non-exempt) and which jobs are not covered (exempt). Non-exempt positions are considered hourly positions and must receive overtime pay or compensatory time for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Exempt positions are considered salaried positions and do not normally receive additional compensation for overtime work. For more information on FLSA please refer to the US Department of Labor website.
If an employee’s duties and pay change, or if the regulations are updated, that person’s FLSA status may change from exempt to non-exempt or from non-exempt to exempt.
To qualify as exempt from FLSA reporting, an employee must satisfy the following tests:
Teachers, lawyers, and doctors as defined by the FLSA and confirmed by the Universities of Wisconsin Office of Human Resources are also exempt from the FLSA. This includes faculty and instructional academic staff whose primary duties are teaching. Those who support teaching activities without actual teaching interaction are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Effective July 1, 2024, the minimum salary threshold under the Fair Labor Standards Act is $844 a week or $43,888 per year. An employee paid above that salary can be designated as exempt from overtime requirements.
Whether or not you meet the salary threshold is determined by your actual earnings not by your annualized salary. If you have a full-time annual rate of $60,000 (which is above the minimum salary threshold of $43,888) but work a 0.50 appointment, your actual earnings are $30,000 which is below the new minimum salary threshold.
Generally, No. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) all work done for the employer, the Universities of Wisconsin, is taken into account to determine whether an employee is exempt or nonexempt.
For example: An employee whose total salary is below the minimum salary threshold (effective July 1, 2024, $844 per week or $43,888 annually), holds a part-time instructional academic staff position as a lecturer (exempt). The employee also holds a part-time position as an hourly (nonexempt) recreational specialist.
If the employee’s primary duty (or the principal, main, major, or most important duty that the employee performs) is teaching as a lecturer, then the employee’s designation is exempt because teaching is the employee’s primary duty, and the employee qualifies for the teacher exemption in the FLSA guidelines regardless of salary.
If the primary duty (or the principal, main, major, or most important duty that the employee performs) is determined to be a recreational specialist, however, the FLSA designation will be nonexempt because the employee (in this example) would not meet the requirements for exemption according to FLSA guidelines.
No. Universities of Wisconsin Office of Human Resources designates employees as exempt or nonexempt in accordance with the guidelines established in federal law. It is not an employee choice.