What Is an Exempt Employee in Florida? Salary, Duties, and Tests

An exempt employee in Florida is a worker who falls outside the overtime protections of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act because the job meets both a minimum salary and a specific set of duties. Florida has no overtime statute of its own, so the FLSA controls. Clearing the salary number alone does not make someone exempt; the daily work has to match one of the recognized categories.

The Two-Part Test

Exemption under the FLSA has two gates, and an employee has to pass both.

The first is pay. The employee must earn at least $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 per year. The U.S. Department of Labor finalized a 2024 rule that would have raised this to $844 in July 2024 and $1,128 in January 2025, but a federal court vacated the rule in November 2024. The DOL reverted to enforcing the 2019 threshold, so $684 is the number that currently applies.¹

The second gate is duties. The employee’s actual day-to-day responsibilities must fit one of the exemption categories described below. Paying someone a salary above $684 does not, by itself, make them exempt. If the duties don’t match, the worker is entitled to overtime at time-and-a-half for hours over 40 in a week, no matter what the paycheck looks like.

The Salary Basis Rule

Exempt employees must be paid on a “salary basis,” meaning a fixed, predetermined amount each pay period that does not fluctuate with hours worked or quality of output.² Employers who routinely dock an exempt worker’s pay for partial-day absences can lose the exemption entirely, which converts the employee to non-exempt and triggers retroactive overtime liability.

Deductions are permitted in a short list of situations:

Full-day absences for personal reasons unrelated to illness.
Full-day absences for sickness or disability when the employer has a bona fide paid-leave plan.
Unpaid leave taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Good-faith penalties for infractions of safety rules of major significance.
Full-day unpaid disciplinary suspensions for serious workplace misconduct, imposed under a written policy applied to all employees.
The first and last week of employment, where only time actually worked needs to be paid.

Jury duty, witness duty, and military leave cannot cause a salary deduction, though the employer may offset the salary by any jury fees, witness fees, or military pay the employee received that week.²

Executive Exemption

The executive exemption covers employees whose primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department within it. The worker must customarily supervise at least two full-time employees (or the equivalent in part-timers), and must have genuine authority over hiring and firing. If the person doesn’t have final say, their recommendations on hiring, firing, promotions, and other status changes must carry real weight.³ A “manager” title on the business card does not matter; what the person actually does during the week is what counts.

Administrative Exemption

The administrative exemption applies to employees whose primary duty is office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers.⁴ Human resources, finance, compliance, and marketing strategy work often fits.

The second requirement is the one that trips employers up: the employee must exercise discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Following a manual or applying a set formula is not independent judgment. A payroll clerk entering data is non-exempt; an HR director designing the compensation philosophy and negotiating executive packages almost certainly is exempt.⁴

Professional Exemptions

The learned professional exemption covers workers whose jobs require advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a prolonged course of specialized education. The work must be primarily intellectual and require consistent use of judgment. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists, and certified public accountants are common examples.⁵

Creative professionals qualify under a parallel test for work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized artistic field such as music, writing, acting, or graphic arts.⁶ A journalist writing feature stories may qualify; a reporter transcribing press conferences likely does not. The dividing line is originality versus accuracy and diligence.

Licensed doctors and practicing attorneys are a special case. They are exempt from both the salary basis and the salary level tests, qualifying based solely on their credentials and the nature of their work.⁷

Computer Employee Exemption

Systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers have their own path. The work must center on designing, developing, testing, or analyzing computer systems and programs.⁸ Computer employees can qualify on an hourly basis rather than a salary basis, but the hourly rate must be at least $27.63.⁹ Help desk technicians and hardware repair staff generally do not qualify, because their work does not involve the systems analysis or programming the exemption contemplates.

Outside Sales Exemption

Outside sales employees are exempt when their primary duty is making sales or obtaining contracts and they customarily work away from the employer’s place of business. This exemption has no minimum salary requirement.¹⁰ Inside sales staff who work from the employer’s location do not qualify.

Highly Compensated Employees

Workers who earn a lot face a lighter duties test. A highly compensated employee is exempt if total annual compensation is at least $107,432, the work is office or non-manual, and the employee regularly performs at least one duty that would qualify under the executive, administrative, or professional tests.¹¹ The $107,432 figure is the 2019 level, which is what the DOL enforces after the 2024 rule was vacated; the planned increase to $151,164 is not in effect. Total compensation can include salary, commissions, and nondiscretionary bonuses, but at least $684 per week must still be paid on a salary or fee basis.

Minimum Wage Still Applies in Florida

Being exempt removes the overtime obligation. It does not allow paying below minimum wage. Florida enforces the Florida Minimum Wage Act under Article X, Section 24 of the state constitution, and a 2020 constitutional amendment set a schedule rising to $15.00 per hour in 2026.¹² Exempt employees must still earn at least this hourly equivalent for the hours they work.

Florida also requires an employee to notify the employer in writing before filing a minimum wage claim, giving the employer 15 calendar days to resolve the dispute.¹³

What Misclassification Costs

Labeling a non-exempt worker as exempt is one of the most expensive payroll mistakes a Florida employer can make. The worker can recover unpaid overtime going back two years, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁴ The FLSA allows an equal amount in liquidated damages, which effectively doubles the back-pay award, and the employee can recover attorney’s fees and court costs.¹⁵

Employers who willfully or repeatedly violate overtime or minimum wage rules face civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, and willful violations can bring criminal prosecution with fines up to $10,000.¹⁵ Exposure multiplies when a misclassification affects a whole job category. Fifteen supervisors wrongly classified as exempt means fifteen separate claims, each with its own doubled damages.

The practical takeaway: check the duties, not just the pay. A salaried title is not an exemption, and treating it as one is how the bills get large.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
3
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.100 – General Rule for Executive Employees
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.200 – General Rule for Administrative Employees
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.301 – Learned Professionals
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.302 – Creative Professionals
7
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.304 – Practice of Law or Medicine
8
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.400 – General Rule for Computer Employees
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #17E: Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the FLSA
10
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.500 – General Rule for Outside Sales Employees
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #17H: Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemption Under the FLSA
12
Florida Senate. Florida Code 448.110 – State Minimum Wage; Annual Wage Adjustment; Enforcement
13
Florida Senate. Chapter 448 Section 110 – Florida Statutes
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Enforcement Under the Fair Labor Standards Act