Library Worklife

Volume 3, No. 3 • March 2006

HR Practice

Exempt? Non-Exempt?

The Non-MLS Salary Survey has evoked many questions. The one question many who are completing the survey struggle with is very basic, but complex: Which are exempt and non-exempt positions? The distinction is particularly confusing for libraries that have staff working part-time.

There is no standard way of categorizing part-time staff. Both exempt and non-exempt staff may work part time. One might ask how a part-timer can be non-exempt when non-exempts can work overtime. The availability or possibility of overtime work is not the deciding factor. The Management Association of Illinois, the organization which is conducting the survey for ALA-APA and ALA, posted this definition:

The terms “exempt” and “non-exempt” refer to an employee's status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and whether or not the position must be paid time and one half for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek (non-exempt) or if they are “exempt” from the overtime requirements. In order for a position to be “exempt,” it must meet one of four main categories—executive (supervises 2 or more FTEs), professional (i.e., MLS-degreed librarian), administrative (making decisions of importance which requires independent judgment and discretion on matters of importance to the business of the organization), or outside sales. [www.hrsource.org/images/mail/exempt_versus_non-exempt.pdf]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics summarizes the Act that established the categories in this way:

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek. [www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa]

For more detail about the Fair Labor Standards Act, see:

Fair Compensation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, by Paula M. Singer & Linda Goldberg; www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol1no4/hr_law.html.
A Follow Up to Fair Compensation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by Linda Goldberg and Paula Singer; www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol1no5/hr_law.html.
US Department of Labor's Fact Sheets:

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