NY Exempt vs. Non-Exempt: Salary Thresholds, Duties, and Overtime

In New York, the line between exempt and non-exempt employees comes down to two things: what you earn and what you actually do. If you make at least the state’s weekly salary minimum and your job duties fit one of the recognized exemption categories, you are exempt and not entitled to overtime. If either piece is missing, you are non-exempt, which means time-and-a-half for every hour past 40 in a workweek, regardless of your title or whether you are paid by salary or by the hour. As of January 1, 2026, the weekly salary floor for an exempt executive or administrative employee runs from $1,199.10 to $1,275.00 depending on where in the state you work, well above the federal minimum of $684 per week.¹

The Two-Part Test for Exempt Status

Being paid a salary does not, by itself, make anyone exempt. New York (following the federal framework) requires both a salary test and a duties test. Fail either one and the employee is non-exempt.

The salary test asks whether the employee is paid a fixed, predetermined amount each week that isn’t reduced based on the quality or quantity of work. The duties test asks whether the employee’s actual day-to-day work matches one of the recognized exempt categories: executive, administrative, or professional. Job titles carry no weight in this analysis. A person called “assistant manager” who spends most of the shift ringing up customers is almost certainly non-exempt. A person called “clerk” who runs a department may not be.

2026 Salary Thresholds in New York

New York sets its own exempt-salary minimums for the executive and administrative exemptions, and they adjust every January 1. For 2026:¹

New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties: $1,275.00 per week, or $66,300 per year.
Rest of New York State: $1,199.10 per week, or roughly $62,353 per year.

An employee who earns even a dollar less than the applicable weekly figure is non-exempt by default, no matter how senior the role. Where state and federal salary standards differ, the more protective standard applies, so New York’s number controls for every employer in the state.²

One important carve-out: the state’s elevated thresholds apply only to the executive and administrative exemptions. The learned professional exemption is not covered by New York’s higher schedule, so professional employees only need to meet the federal $684-per-week floor on a salary basis.¹ A physician or lawyer earning $50,000 can still qualify as exempt; an office manager earning the same amount in New York City cannot.

The Duty Tests

Executive Exemption

Covers employees whose primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department. They must regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees (or the part-time equivalent) and have real authority over hiring and firing, or at least give recommendations that carry meaningful weight.³ A “manager” who spends most of the day doing the same production work as the staff usually fails this test.

Administrative Exemption

Covers office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, where the employee regularly exercises independent judgment on significant matters.⁴ This is the exemption most often misapplied. Following a script, processing standard forms, or applying preset rules is not independent judgment, even when the paperwork is complex.

Professional Exemption

Covers work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through prolonged specialized education rather than on-the-job training. Lawyers, physicians, engineers, and CPAs are the classic examples. Holding an advanced degree is not enough on its own; the daily work itself has to require it.

Other Exemptions Worth Knowing

New York’s overtime rules pull in the federal exemption framework, so several less-familiar categories can apply.5

Computer professionals. Systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers whose primary duty is designing, developing, testing, or analyzing computer systems or programs can be exempt if they meet the salary threshold or are paid at least $27.63 per hour. The exemption does not reach help desk staff, hardware technicians, or people who simply use software as a tool in unrelated work.⁶

Outside sales. Employees whose primary duty is making sales or obtaining contracts, and who regularly work away from the employer’s place of business, can qualify. This is the one white-collar exemption with no minimum salary requirement.

Highly compensated employees. Workers earning at least $107,432 per year in total compensation (with at least $684 per week paid on a salary basis) face a relaxed duty test: they only need to regularly perform one exempt duty of an executive, administrative, or professional employee.²

The Salary Basis Rule

Meeting the salary threshold isn’t just about how much; it’s about how the pay is structured. Exempt employees must receive their full predetermined salary for any week in which they do any work, regardless of hours or output. Improper deductions can strip an employee of exempt status entirely and expose the employer to back-overtime liability.

Federal rules allow salary deductions only in narrow circumstances:⁷

Full-day absences for personal reasons other than illness.
Full-day sick absences, if the employer has a bona fide paid-leave plan.
Full weeks of unpaid FMLA leave.
Full-day disciplinary suspensions imposed in good faith for workplace conduct violations.
Penalties for serious safety-rule infractions.
Prorated pay in the first or last week of employment when the employee doesn’t work the full week.

Docking a salaried employee for showing up late, leaving early, or a slow afternoon is not on the list, and doing it regularly can convert the whole classification to non-exempt.

What Non-Exempt Status Actually Gets You

Non-exempt employees in New York earn one and one-half times their regular hourly rate for every hour beyond 40 in a workweek.⁸ The “regular rate” is more than the base hourly wage. It has to include non-discretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and commissions. If you earn $20.00 per hour plus a $200 weekly production bonus, overtime is calculated on the higher blended rate, not on $20.00. Whether the employer authorized the extra hours doesn’t matter; hours worked must be paid.

Spread of Hours Pay

New York adds a protection with no federal counterpart. If the span from the start to the end of your workday exceeds 10 hours, you’re owed an extra hour of pay at the applicable minimum wage rate, even if you took long breaks during that span.⁹ The same rule applies to split shifts. For 2026, that hour is worth $17.00 in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, and $16.00 elsewhere in the state.¹⁰ It is paid on top of regular wages and any overtime.

Off-the-Clock Work

Employers cannot avoid overtime by refusing to authorize extra time while still accepting the work product. Under the FLSA, all time an employer “suffers or permits” an employee to work has to be counted. A few seconds logging in may fall under the de minimis rule, but the threshold is tight. Routine pre-shift email checks, equipment setup, or cleanup after clocking out is compensable and counts toward the 40-hour overtime trigger.¹¹

Travel and Training Time

Travel between job sites during the workday is paid; the ordinary home-to-work commute is not. Same-day travel to an off-site meeting or training is fully compensable. For overnight trips, driving on the employer’s behalf is work time at any hour, while riding as a passenger outside normal working hours generally isn’t.

Training time must be paid unless all four of these are true: it happens outside regular working hours, attendance is voluntary, the subject is unrelated to the employee’s current job, and no productive work is done during the session. Mandatory workday safety training is always paid.

If You Think You’ve Been Misclassified

New York gives workers a six-year window to sue for unpaid wages, one of the longest in the country.¹² For an employee misclassified as exempt for years, that lookback can make the numbers substantial.

A successful wage claim recovers the unpaid overtime, prejudgment interest, and reasonable attorney’s fees. On top of that, courts add liquidated damages equal to 100% of the unpaid wages unless the employer proves it had a good-faith belief that its practices complied with the law.¹³ The Commissioner of Labor can order the same relief without a lawsuit.

You have two paths. You can file a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor, which will investigate and, if the employer refuses to pay, issue an Order to Comply.¹⁴ Or you can go directly to court. Given how the six-year clock works, waiting only costs you: each week of delay pushes an equivalent week of wages off the far end of the lookback. Hold onto pay stubs, timesheets, schedules, and any written communication about your hours or pay. Employers are required to keep records for six years, but a worker with their own paper trail is in a much stronger position if the employer’s files turn out to be thin.

Retaliation Is Illegal

New York Labor Law Section 215 makes it unlawful for an employer to fire, demote, threaten, or otherwise punish an employee for raising a wage complaint, filing with the Department of Labor, or testifying in a wage investigation. The complaint doesn’t need to cite a specific statute, and the protection applies even if the underlying claim turns out to lack merit, as long as it was made in good faith. Threatening to report an employee’s immigration status counts as retaliation. Civil penalties run from $1,000 to $10,000 per violation, and up to $20,000 for repeat violators. Courts can also order reinstatement, back pay, front pay, liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees.¹⁵

1
New York State Department of Labor. Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption from Minimum Wage and Overtime Protections Under the FLSA
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees
4
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employeesa>
5
New York State Department of Labor. 12 NYCRR 142 – Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17G – Salary Basis Requirement and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
New York State Department of Labor. Overtime Frequently Asked Questions
9
Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 12 142-2.4
10
NY.gov. New York State’s Minimum Wage
11
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Hours Worked Advisor
12
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 663 – Civil Action
13
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 198 – Costs, Remedies
14
New York State Department of Labor. The Labor Standards Complaint Process
15
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Penalties and Civil Action; Prohibited Retaliation