administrative exemption

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As Human Resources professionals already know, running an HR department – or fulfilling the HR function on one’s own – is an integral component of administering an employer’s business. But do those duties necessarily translate into qualifying exempt duties under the FLSA? One recent federal decision confirms that the answer is yes. Farnham v. Riimic, 2012…

To qualify for the administrative exemption, DOL regulations require that an “executive assistant or administrative assistant to a business owner or senior executive of a large business “ perform his or her duties “without specific instructions or prescribed procedures” and that he or she be “delegated authority regarding matters of significance.” 29 CFR § 541.203(d). If …

Applicability of various FLSA white collar exemptions to workers in the information technology sector continues to be a detailed and difficult analysis, in part due to the Department of Labor’s rules regarding the “computer professional” exemption, which have failed to keep up with the  rapidly evolving workforce in the technology sector of the economy. The computer…

While the pharmaceutical industry is focused on the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Christopher, as to whether the work performed by pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) for GlaxoSmithKline qualified for the outside sales exemption, another circuit court has weighed in on the duties of PSRs and their FLSA status in the context of the administrative…

Much attention has been paid to the Department of Labor’s March 2010 Administrative Interpretation, which reversed prior DOL opinions and stated that mortgage loan officers do not qualify for the administrative exemption under the FLSA. The Mortgage Bankers Association has filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the interpretation as a violation of the Administrative Procedures…

As the volume of FLSA lawsuits remains high, the frequency of collective action trials – once unheard of – has correspondingly increased. On January 5, 2012, following a bench trial, Judge Edmund Sargus, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled that 91 current and former “special investigators” for defendant…

Quantifying the necessary “discretion and independent judgment” required to qualify for the administrative exemption continues to divide courts, and the conclusion is often in the eye of the judicial beholder. This is especially so where discretionary authority must be measured without reference to monetary benchmarks or limits, such as those applicable to insurance adjusters or…

We have repeatedly addressed the FLSA administrative exemption’s requirement that an employee exercise discretion and independent judgment, a concept which has confounded some courts and at times, led to inconsistent rulings. In a new decision, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (encompassing Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine) has ruled that sales…

As the pharmaceutical community eagerly awaits the Supreme Court’s decision whether to grant certiorari in Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., courts within the Third Circuit (encompassing Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware) continue to conform to the appeals court’s previous holding in Smith v. Johnson & Johnson, 593 F.3d 280 (3d Cir. 2010), that…