Nevada Overtime Laws for Salaried Employees: Exemptions and Rate

Being paid a salary in Nevada does not, by itself, make you exempt from overtime. Under Nevada overtime laws for salaried employees, you are owed overtime unless you earn at least $684 per week on a salary basis and your actual job duties fit one of the narrow executive, administrative, professional, or computer exemptions recognized by state and federal law. Nevada goes further than federal law for lower-paid workers by requiring daily overtime after 8 hours in a workday, not just weekly overtime after 40.

When a Salary Actually Makes You Exempt

Two things have to be true before an employer can refuse to pay you overtime: your pay has to clear a minimum salary, and your real work has to match a recognized exemption. Miss either one and you’re entitled to overtime no matter what your offer letter says.

The salary floor comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act. The U.S. Department of Labor tried to raise it in 2024, but a federal court in Texas vacated that rule. The enforceable number remains $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 per year.¹ If your salary is below that figure, your employer owes you overtime regardless of your title or responsibilities.

Clearing the salary floor is only the first hurdle. NRS 608.018 exempts employees working in “bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacities,” and Nevada applies the same duties tests as the FLSA.² Job titles don’t control; the question is what you actually do day to day.

Executive

You qualify for the executive exemption only if your primary job is managing the business or a recognized department, you regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees (or part-time equivalents), and you have real authority over hiring, firing, or promotion decisions. If you don’t make those calls yourself, your recommendations need to carry genuine weight.³ Being called a “manager” while doing the same work as the people on your team won’t cut it.

Administrative

The administrative exemption covers office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or its customers. The core requirement is that you exercise discretion and independent judgment on significant matters, meaning decisions that shape policy, commit the employer financially, or resolve meaningful operational questions without close review.⁴ Workers who follow set procedures or apply established rules to routine situations are usually non-exempt even when the work happens at a desk.

Professional

The learned professional exemption applies to work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a prolonged course of specialized study. Licensed engineers, physicians, lawyers, and accountants are the classic examples. Creative professionals whose work depends on invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized artistic field can qualify too. In both cases the work has to be predominantly intellectual and varied rather than routine.⁴

Computer Employee

Certain computer professionals have their own exemption. Workers in systems analysis, software design or development, programming, or system testing based on design specifications can qualify, but only if they’re paid the standard salary threshold or at least $27.63 per hour. The exemption does not cover people who repair hardware or who simply use software as a tool, like an engineer running design programs or a data entry clerk.⁵

Nevada’s Two-Tier Rule for Non-Exempt Salaried Workers

If your salary and duties don’t make you exempt, you’re non-exempt. Nevada then splits non-exempt workers into two groups based on hourly pay, and each group gets different overtime protections. The dividing line is one and a half times the state minimum wage. With Nevada’s constitutional minimum wage at $12 per hour, that threshold is $18 per hour.

Earn less than $18 per hour and you qualify for both daily and weekly overtime. Your employer owes you time-and-a-half for any hours past 8 in a single workday and for any hours past 40 in a workweek.² Nevada defines a workday as 24 consecutive hours starting when you begin work, not the calendar day.

Earn $18 per hour or more and you still get weekly overtime past 40 hours, but the daily trigger drops away.⁶ To see which tier you fall into, divide your weekly salary by 40. A salaried worker making $700 a week has an effective rate of $17.50 and belongs in the lower tier, with daily overtime rights.

The 4/10 Schedule Carve-Out

Nevada’s daily overtime rule has one notable exception. If you and your employer agree by mutual consent to a compressed workweek of four 10-hour days, the daily trigger shifts from 8 hours to 10 hours.² You still get overtime past 10 in a day or past 40 in a week. The statute requires mutual agreement but doesn’t explicitly require a written document, though putting it in writing protects both sides. A schedule imposed unilaterally by the employer can lose the benefit of the carve-out, which would make daily overtime owed from hour 9 onward.

Converting a Salary Into an Overtime Rate

When a salaried non-exempt employee works overtime, the employer first has to convert the salary into an hourly rate by dividing the weekly salary by the hours it’s meant to cover. If your salary is $680 per week for a 40-hour workweek, your regular rate is $17 per hour and your overtime rate is $25.50.

It gets trickier when the salary is understood to cover more than 40 hours. If $680 is meant to compensate 45 hours, the regular rate becomes about $15.11 per hour. For the 5 overtime hours, you’d be owed the half-time premium of roughly $7.56 each, because the straight-time portion is already included in the salary. Employers who are vague about what the salary covers usually lose the dispute, because ambiguity gets resolved in the employee’s favor.

Jobs Carved Out From Overtime Entirely

Beyond the executive, administrative, and professional categories, NRS 608.018 lists specific roles that are exempt from overtime regardless of salary level or duties:

Taxicab and limousine drivers
Agricultural employees
Drivers, helpers, loaders, and mechanics for motor carriers subject to the Motor Carrier Act
Railroad and airline employees
Retail or service commission workers whose regular rate exceeds 1.5 times the minimum wage, with more than half their pay coming from commissions
Auto, truck, or farm equipment salespersons and mechanics
Outside buyers who regularly purchase goods or materials away from the employer’s premises
Local delivery drivers paid on a trip-rate or per-delivery basis
Employees of businesses with gross annual sales under $250,000
Live-in domestic workers, if employer and employee agree in writing

Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement that specifically addresses overtime may also fall outside the standard rules.⁶ These exemptions override the general framework even for low-paid, non-managerial workers, so check whether your position fits one before assuming you’re owed overtime.

If You’re Owed Overtime

Ask your employer first, in writing. Nevada’s Labor Commissioner won’t take a wage claim unless you’ve already demanded the unpaid wages from the employer. Once you have, you can file a claim through the Office of the Labor Commissioner’s online portal.⁷

You have 24 months from the date of the violation to file, and incomplete claims can be returned or dismissed, cutting into that window.⁷ Pull your pay stubs, time records, and any written communications about hours or pay before you submit.

The Labor Commissioner can’t help in every situation. The office lacks jurisdiction if you were an independent contractor, if you’re covered by a union collective bargaining agreement, if you’ve already filed a private lawsuit over the same wages, or if the employer has filed bankruptcy. Those cases run through court or federal agencies instead.⁷

The penalties for employers who get this wrong are real. A violation of Nevada’s wage and hour laws is a misdemeanor, and the Labor Commissioner can impose an administrative penalty of up to $5,000 per violation. Employees who win a court judgment for unpaid wages also recover reasonable attorney fees. Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor to dodge overtime brings its own liability for lost wages, benefits, and economic damages under NRS 608.410.⁶

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 608.018 – Compensation for Overtime: Requirement; Exceptions
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17B – Exemption for Executive Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
6
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours
7
Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner. Forms for Employees