Who Is Exempt from Overtime Pay in Ohio: Exempt Roles and Tests

Who is exempt from overtime pay in Ohio depends on two things working together: how much the worker earns and what the worker actually does on the job. Ohio adopts the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s exemptions, so the same categories that free an employer from paying time-and-a-half under federal law apply in Ohio.¹ The most common exempt workers are salaried executives, administrators, and professionals earning at least $684 per week. Outside salespeople, certain commissioned retail workers, licensed teachers, lawyers, and doctors are also exempt, and Ohio adds a handful of its own categories, including agricultural workers and employees of very small businesses.

A job title has nothing to do with it. Calling someone a “manager” or “assistant director” does not make the person exempt if the actual work does not fit one of the categories below.

The Salary and Duties Test

For most white-collar exemptions, two conditions must both be met.

First, the salary floor. The employee must earn at least $684 per week, or $35,568 per year, paid on a salary basis.² Salary basis means a fixed, predetermined amount each pay period that does not go up or down based on hours worked or how busy the business was. An employer cannot dock a salaried exempt worker’s pay for leaving early one afternoon or for a slow week.³ Up to 10 percent of that salary requirement can be met through nondiscretionary bonuses or incentive payments, with one pay period after year-end for a catch-up payment if those bonuses fall short.⁴

Second, the duties test. The employee’s actual day-to-day work must fit one of the specific categories described below. Earning a high salary alone does not create an exemption.

If you earn less than $684 per week, you are entitled to overtime no matter what you do.

Executive Employees

The executive exemption covers workers whose primary job is managing the business or a recognized department within it. The employee must regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees (or part-time equivalents) and must have genuine authority to hire or fire, or at least recommendations that carry real weight.⁵

A shift lead who spends most of the day stocking shelves and only occasionally hands out tasks does not meet this test, regardless of the title on the schedule.

Administrative Employees

The administrative exemption applies to office or non-manual work that directly relates to the management or general business operations of the employer, where the employee regularly exercises independent judgment on matters of significance.⁶ Negotiating contracts, setting pricing strategy, and handling regulatory compliance are the kinds of decisions that qualify. Routine clerical work, data entry, or following a procedure manual does not, even if the work happens in an office.⁷

Schools and universities have a parallel version. Administrative employees in educational institutions qualify if they earn at least the entrance salary for teachers at the same school and if their primary duties involve academic program administration, such as developing curriculum or advising students on academic matters.⁸

Professional Employees

The professional exemption splits into three branches.

Learned professionals perform work that requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a prolonged course of specialized academic instruction. Engineers, accountants, architects, pharmacists, and physicians are standard examples.⁹ A skilled trade learned through apprenticeship or on-the-job experience does not qualify, no matter how expert the worker becomes.

Creative professionals work in fields like writing, music, acting, and graphic arts, where the job depends on invention, imagination, or original talent. Template-driven or routine production work does not qualify even inside a creative industry.

Teachers, licensed lawyers actively practicing law, and licensed doctors actively practicing medicine are exempt without any salary threshold at all. Medical residents and interns with the required degree also qualify.¹⁰ A teacher is exempt regardless of pay as long as instructing students at an educational institution is the main duty.

Outside Sales Employees

No salary threshold applies to outside sales. The employee is exempt if the primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders and contracts, and if that work is regularly performed away from the employer’s place of business.¹¹ An inside salesperson working from the employer’s office, a home office, or the phone does not qualify, even if the role looks identical in every other respect.

Highly Compensated Employees

Workers earning at least $107,432 per year in total compensation, including at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis, face a lighter duties test. They are exempt if their work is primarily office or non-manual and they regularly perform at least one duty from the executive, administrative, or professional categories.¹² The $107,432 figure counts salary, commissions, and nondiscretionary bonuses, but does not count benefits like health insurance or retirement contributions.

Computer Employees

Systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, and similarly skilled computer workers can be exempt when their primary duties involve designing, developing, testing, or analyzing computer systems or programs. The pay requirement is either $684 per week on salary or at least $27.63 per hour.¹³

Workers who manufacture, install, or repair computer hardware are not covered. Help-desk technicians focused on physical equipment generally remain eligible for overtime.¹⁴

Commissioned Retail and Service Workers

Employees of retail or service businesses who are paid largely on commission can be exempt from overtime if all three of the following are true in any week with overtime hours:¹⁵

The employer qualifies as a retail or service establishment.
The employee’s regular rate, including commissions, is more than one and one-half times the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked.
More than half of the employee’s earnings over a representative period come from commissions.

Miss any one of those three, and overtime is owed at the standard rate.

Ohio-Specific Exemptions

Ohio adds a few exemptions that go beyond the federal list.

Very Small Businesses

Businesses with less than $150,000 in annual gross sales, excluding separately stated retail excise taxes, are not treated as “employers” under Ohio’s overtime statute at all. Their workers are outside Ohio’s overtime requirement, though they may still be covered by the federal FLSA if either the business or the individual employee meets federal coverage tests separately.¹

Agricultural Workers

Workers engaged in agriculture, including cultivating soil, raising livestock, and harvesting crops, are specifically excluded from Ohio’s overtime provisions.¹

Seasonal Amusement and Recreational Establishments

Workers at seasonal amusement or recreational businesses can also be exempt. Under the federal rule Ohio follows, this generally applies to establishments operating no more than seven months in a calendar year, or whose off-season revenue is significantly lower than their peak months.¹⁶

County and Township Employees

County and township employees in Ohio may receive compensatory time off rather than overtime pay. Comp time accrues at one and one-half hours for each overtime hour worked and must be used within 180 days, and the appointing authority can set a different overtime policy by rule or resolution.¹

If You Think You’ve Been Misclassified

Where federal and state overtime rules differ, the employee gets whichever law provides the stronger protection.¹⁷ A worker who believes an employer has wrongly treated the job as exempt can file a complaint with Ohio’s Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration in the Department of Commerce,¹⁸ file with the federal Wage and Hour Division, or bring a private lawsuit. Back pay generally reaches two years, extending to three years if the employer’s violation was willful, so acting quickly protects the largest possible recovery.¹⁹

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 4111.03 – Overtime Compensation
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
3
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17G – Salary Basis Requirement and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the FLSA
5
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart B – Executive Employees
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.200 – General Rule for Administrative Employees
7
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.202 – Discretion and Independent Judgment
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17C – Exemption for Administrative Employees Under the FLSA
9
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart D – Professional Employees
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17D – Exemption for Professional Employees Under the FLSA
11
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart F – Outside Sales Employees
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17H – Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemption Under the FLSA
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the FLSA
14
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 Subpart E – Computer Employees
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 20 – Employees Paid Commissions by Retail Establishments Under the FLSA
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
17
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime
18
Ohio Department of Commerce. Minimum Wage Complaint
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations