News & Insights

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) establishes the minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, and overtime requirements for employees working over forty (40) hours per week, at a rate of one and one half times the employee’s regular rate of pay. 29 U.S.C. §206, 207. But, employees employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity are exempt from these minimum wage and overtime requirements. 29 U.S.C. §213(a). The United States Department of Labor (“USDOL”) regulations establish a salary threshold and job duties test for each exempt classification noted above. The salary threshold will be satisfied if an employee is paid a fixed salary in an amount not less than $684 per week ($35,568 annually), which school bus operators can easily determine. However, it is not uncommon for school bus operators to struggle with determining whether an employee meets certain job duties requirements, which could lead to misclassifying an employee as exempt and potentially resulting in liability for unpaid overtime.

Employees will satisfy the administrative exemption if they primarily perform office or non-manual work that is directly related to the management or general operations of the business. 29 C.F.R. §541.200. These employees must also exercise discretion or independent judgment to matters of significance. Id. For school bus operators, these may be employees who work in areas like human resources or personnel management, and who have authority to implement policies, carry out major assignments, and investigate and resolve important matters. 29 C.F.R. §§541.201, 202. This usually does not include employees like administrative assistants or payroll managers.

Employees will satisfy the executive exemption if they primarily perform duties related to the management of the business in which they are employed, regularly direct work to others, or have authority to make employment decisions or recommend employment decisions to management. 29 C.F.R. §541.100.  This includes actions like interviewing applicants, directing employees, providing performance feedback, and planning work. 29 C.F.R. §541.102. For school bus operators, this exemption is more likely to apply to someone like an operations manager or location manager.

Lastly, employees will satisfy the professional exemption if their primary duties include work that requires knowledge in a field of science or which was learned through specialized instruction or requires intervention, imagination, originality, or talent in a field of artistic or creative endeavor. 29 C.F.R. §541.300. This is typically only applicable to those in professions like law, medicine, engineering, etc., and therefore is unlikely to be relevant for many school bus operators. 

School bus operators should be aware that USDOL regulations specifically state that these exemptions will not apply to manual laborers and blue collar workers that perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill, and energy. 29 C.F.R. §541.3(a). For school bus operators, this is an important clarification because it means many mechanics and other laborers may not be exempt from overtime, despite meeting the salary threshold and job duties tests explained above.

School bus operators should review employees’ exempt status on a fact specific, case-by-case basis. Job descriptions can help streamline this process, as well as provide protection against any potential challenges for failure to pay overtime. However, school bus operators should be mindful to keep their job descriptions up-to-date to ensure that all duties being performed by an employee are accurately captured in the description. School bus operators should remember to take into account specific job duties, not just job titles, when determining an employees exempt status.  If you are evaluating the FLSA classifications of your employees, or have questions on above, contact help@rckelly.com or call us at 215-896-3846.