To be classified as exempt, white-collar workers must be on salary and have duties and responsibilities demonstrating that they actually work as executives or professional employees. The definition of professionals, for example, are those whose work requires advanced knowledge and education or who are in an artistic field that is original or creative, and they must exercise discretion and judgment. The tricky issue now is who does and does not qualify as exempt. The Department Of Labor has found that a wide variety of workers are not paid overtime whose jobs were classified as exempt but should not have been. Such misclassification may be willful or simply made in ignorance of the law.
Classification is tricky.
The FLSA rules were made for a different kind of workforce and a different time period. Yet they likely won t be revised soon.