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Professional Employee
Practical Law Glossary Item 3-507-9930 (Approx. 4 pages)
Glossary
Professional Employee
An employee classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (and some state and local equivalents) that is exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements (29 C.F.R. §§ 541.300 to 541.304).
To qualify for the professional exemption under the FLSA, each employee must satisfy the following:
- The employee must be compensated:
- on a salary or fee basis; and
- at a rate at least equal to the standard salary level of $844 a week, effective July 1, 2024 ($1,128 a week, effective January 1, 2025, with subsequent updates at three-year intervals starting July 1, 2027) ($684 a week before July 1, 2024) (special salary levels apply to US territories) (29 C.F.R. §§ 541.600 and 541.607).
- The employee must satisfy the duties requirements of a:
- learned professional; or
- creative professional.
An exempt learned professional's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, which:
- Is defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment.
- Must be in a field of science or learning.
- Must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
An exempt creative professional's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.
(29 C.F.R. §§ 541.300 to 541.304.)
Separate exemption requirements apply to computer professional employees.
On April 23, 2024, the DOL announced a final rule to increase the standard salary level for the executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions and the total annual compensation threshold for the highly compensated employee (HCE) exemption (89 Fed. Reg. 32842). The first of two incremental increases took effect July 1, 2024. The second is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2025, with subsequent updates at three-year intervals starting July 1, 2027. (29 C.F.R. §§ 541.600 and 541.607.) For more on the DOL's 2024 final rule, including prior rulemaking and pending legal challenges, see Minimum Salary for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions Under the FLSA: DOL Rulemaking Tracker.
For more information on the exemption requirements for learned and creative professional employees under the FLSA, see FLSA White Collar Exemptions Checklist: Professional Exemption.
State or local law may provide for the same or a similar exemption or may prohibit the exemption of professional employees. For more information on state wage and hour laws, see Wage and Hour Claims Toolkit: State-Specific Materials and Wage and Hour Laws: State Q&A Tool.