Am I exempt or non-exempt?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Am I exempt or non-exempt?
I’m employed by a company that gives piano lessons at public schools. I get paid per class. The duties that I don’t get paid for are giving reminder calls to parents(on my personal phone), doing paperwork and emails (at home), driving to and from the schools ($5 bonus if over 20 miles away),and setting up and breaking down the classroom. I’ve been to two meetings I haven’t gotten paid for, not to mention the 3 days of training which were called an “audition”. The job was advertised as hourly, but what is it really? And how much of it is legal?
Asked on November 4, 2010 under Employment Labor Law, Arizona
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
You are almost certianly a nonexempt employee, since you do not appear to meet the main exemptions: executive, administrative, professional. For more on those exemptions and what qualifies someone, go the Dept. of Labor website and look under "wage and hour," then "overtime." Note that to be exempt, your duties must be exempt and you must also be paid on a salary basis.
If you are nonexempt, you should be paid for all work done, onsite or offsite, including mandatory meetings and training time. (One caveat: if the training was prior to getting the job and was a condition to possibly being employed, it may be the case--depending on exact circumstances--that you did not need to be paid for it, especially if you knew in advance it was unpaid.) The only thing you don't need to be paid for is communting time to a principal or regular place of business (e.g. an office).
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.