• Professional employees qualify for exemption under FLSA if their job duties and salary meet the criteria.

To qualify for the learned professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met. The employee must:

• Be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684 per week;
• Have a primary duty of performance of work requiring advanced knowledge (defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment);
• Have advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning; and
• Have advanced knowledge that was customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

To qualify for the creative professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met. The employee must:

• Be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684 per week; and
• Have a primary duty of performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.