Professionals Who Are Paid On An Hourly Basis May No Longer Be Exempt From Overtime Under New Regulations
As we previously reported on September 6, 2011, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) adopted the so-called “white collar” exemptions for Administrative, Executive, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer employees as contained in the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Employers are not required to pay overtime compensation (i.e. compensation at the rate of 1.5 percent of the employee’s regular hourly rate) to an employee who qualifies for one of these exemptions. The new regulations were intended to provide consistency between federal and New Jersey law. They leave open the possibility, however, that employees who previously qualified for an exemption under New Jersey law may now have to be reclassified as non-exempt. The issue is raised by the New Jersey Appellate Division’s recent decision in Anderson, et al. v. Phoenix Health Care, Inc., et al.