An exempt employee in Ohio is a worker who falls outside the overtime and minimum wage protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which Ohio’s overtime law adopts directly. To qualify, you generally need to be paid at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year) on a salary basis, and your actual job duties have to match one of the recognized white-collar exemption categories. If either piece is missing, you are non-exempt and entitled to overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, no matter what your title says.
Ohio Revised Code Section 4111.03 requires overtime at one and a half times the regular rate, but it incorporates the FLSA exemptions by reference.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 4111.03 So the classification question is really a federal question, answered the same way in Columbus as it is in any other state.
The Salary Floor
Most exemptions start with money. You have to be paid at least $684 per week, which comes to $35,568 per year. The Department of Labor tried to raise that number in 2024, but a federal court in Texas vacated the new rule in November 2024, and the agency is enforcing the 2019 figure with no scheduled increase for 2026.2U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption If your pay is below $684 a week, you are non-exempt. Duties don’t enter the picture.
The pay also has to come as a salary. “Salary basis” means a predetermined amount each pay period that doesn’t rise or fall with the number of hours you worked or how productive you were. If you do any work in a given week, you generally get your full weekly salary.3eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis An employee paid hourly, with a few narrow exceptions, is not exempt.
For comparison, Ohio’s minimum wage climbs to $11.00 per hour on January 1, 2026, for non-tipped employees at businesses with annual gross receipts over $405,000.4Ohio Department of Commerce. Ohio Minimum Wage Set to Increase in 2026 An exempt salary has to clear the federal $684 figure, which is well above the state wage floor.
The Duties Test
Clearing the salary line is not enough. Your primary duty — the most important part of what you actually do — has to fit one of the exemption categories below. Job titles carry no weight here. An employer can print “Assistant Manager” or “Director of Operations” on your business card, but if the work doesn’t match the duties test, the exemption fails.
Executive
The executive exemption covers employees whose primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department within it. You also have to regularly direct the work of at least two other full-time employees and have real authority over hiring and firing, or at least recommendations that carry genuine weight.5eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart B – Executive Employees
This is where misclassification happens most. A shift lead at a retail store who spends most of the day stocking shelves and running a register is not primarily managing, even if they sometimes assign tasks to coworkers. The question turns on what the person actually spends their time doing.
Administrative
The administrative exemption applies to office or non-manual work directly related to running the business or serving the employer’s customers. The employee also has to exercise genuine discretion and independent judgment on significant matters.6eCFR. 29 CFR 541.200 – General Rule for Administrative Employees
That second piece trips people up. “Discretion and independent judgment” means authority to make decisions that affect business outcomes, like negotiating contracts, setting prices, or shaping company policy. An administrative assistant who follows detailed procedures is not exercising this kind of judgment, whatever the job title suggests.
Professional
Professional exemptions split into two tracks. Learned professionals do work that requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through extended specialized study. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and accountants fit here. The knowledge has to be intellectual in nature, not something picked up on the job or through an apprenticeship.7GovInfo. 29 CFR 541.300 – General Rule for Professional Employees
Creative professionals do work that depends on invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized artistic field. Musicians, writers, actors, and designers can qualify, but only when the work genuinely calls for creative input. Following templates or rigid specifications doesn’t count.
Outside Sales
Outside sales is the one exemption with no salary requirement. Your primary duty has to be making sales or securing contracts for services, and the work has to regularly happen away from the employer’s place of business.8eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart F – Outside Sales Employees Inside sales reps working from an office or call center do not qualify, no matter their numbers.
Computer Employees
Systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers may qualify under the computer employee exemption. They can be paid on the standard $684-per-week salary basis, or hourly at no less than $27.63 per hour.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Help desk techs and hardware repair workers generally don’t qualify, because their day-to-day work isn’t the high-level analytical or programming work the exemption targets.
Highly Compensated Employees
Employees earning at least $107,432 per year get a simplified duties test. They only need to regularly perform at least one exempt duty, such as directing other employees or exercising independent judgment on significant matters, with a primary duty of office or non-manual work.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17H – Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemption The 2024 rule would have raised this threshold to $151,164, but the court vacatur leaves $107,432 as the enforced figure.
Who Can Never Be Exempt
Manual laborers and non-management workers in trades like construction, maintenance, plumbing, and electrical work are never exempt, regardless of pay. The white-collar exemptions do not reach work involving repetitive operations with hands, physical skill, and energy.11eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees A plumber earning $120,000 a year is still owed overtime. This catches some Ohio employers in manufacturing and construction off guard, where skilled tradespeople often earn salaries that would otherwise clear the threshold.
What Exempt Status Means for Your Paycheck
If you’re properly classified as exempt, your employer owes no overtime for hours past 40 in a workweek under either federal law or Ohio Revised Code Section 4111.03.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code Section 4111.03 Some employers pay it anyway as a perk, but the law doesn’t require it. Your salary satisfies minimum wage as long as it clears $684 a week, no matter how many hours you put in during any particular week.
Neither Ohio nor federal law requires employers to give meal or rest breaks to adult employees, exempt or not. If your workplace offers them, that’s company policy. The only state-level break rule is a 30-minute break for workers under 18 who work more than five consecutive hours.
When Your Employer Can and Can’t Dock Your Pay
Because exempt status rests on being paid a fixed salary, deductions are tightly limited. Improper deductions can destroy the salary basis and knock out the exemption entirely. The permissible deductions are:3eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
- Full-day absences for personal reasons unrelated to illness. If you miss a day and a half, only the full day can be deducted; the half-day must be paid.
- Full-day absences for illness or injury, but only if the employer has a bona fide paid-leave plan, and the employee has either not yet qualified for it or has used it up.
- Unpaid FMLA leave, which can be deducted proportionally even for partial days.
- Full-day unpaid disciplinary suspensions imposed under a written conduct policy that applies to all employees.
- Penalties for breaking safety rules that protect against serious workplace danger.
- The first and last weeks of employment, which can be prorated to time actually worked.
The rule to remember: outside of FMLA, no deductions for partial-day absences. If you work two hours Tuesday morning and go home sick, you get paid for the full day. Routine hour-by-hour docking of an exempt employee’s pay is the clearest sign the salary basis isn’t being honored.
Signs You May Be Misclassified
Look at two things. First, the money: is your salary at least $684 per week, paid as a fixed amount that doesn’t fluctuate with your hours? Second, the duties: does your primary job actually match one of the categories above? If your title is “manager” but you spend your week doing the same production work as the people you supposedly supervise, or you’re called an “administrator” but you follow a script rather than making judgment calls, the exemption probably doesn’t hold.
Misclassification can be expensive for the employer. A misclassified employee is owed back pay for all unpaid overtime, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, which doubles the bill. A successful private lawsuit also shifts the employee’s attorney fees and court costs onto the employer.12U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay The limitations period is two years, stretching to three if the violation was willful.
What to Do If You Think You’re Misclassified
You have two paths. You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division online or by phone at 1-866-487-9243, which costs nothing and lets the agency investigate and order back wages.13Worker.gov. Filing a Complaint With the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Or you can hire an attorney and file a private lawsuit, which opens up liquidated damages and attorney fees but requires representation.
Either way, start keeping records now. Save your pay stubs, any written job description, and a running log of the hours you actually work. The DOL does not require employers to track exempt employees’ hours the way they track non-exempt workers,14U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the FLSA so your own records may end up being the best evidence of how much overtime went unpaid.