Exemptions: Overtime & minimum wage - Wisconsin

Summary of differences between federal and state regulations

Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for employees employed as bona fide executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees. Section 13(a)(1) and Section 13(a)(17) also exempt certain computer employees.

To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain tests regarding their job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than $684 per week. Job titles do not determine exempt status. In order for an exemption to apply, an employee’s specific job duties and salary must meet all the requirements of the Department’s regulations.

These salary minimum does not apply to outside sales employees, teachers, and employees practicing law or medicine. Exempt computer employees may be paid at least $684 on a salary basis or on an hourly basis at a rate not less than $27.63 an hour.

In Wisconsin, the following individuals are exempt from minimum wage provisions: newspaper carriers, real estate agents, elected officials or staff of elected officials.

In addition, the following individuals are exempt from the Wisconsin overtime provisions: those in executive, administrative or professional positions, outside sales people, highly paid commissioned employees of retail and service establishments, drivers, drivers' helpers and mechanics employed by a motor carrier subject to the Motor Carrier Act, rail carrier employees who are subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, air carrier employees who are subject to the Railway Labor Act, taxi drivers, sales people, partsmen, mechanics who are employed by car, truck, farm equipment, trailer, boat, motorcycle or snowmobile dealerships, agricultural workers, movie theatre employees, drivers and drivers' helpers who make local deliveries, funeral home employees, forestry employees, and computer analysts, programmers or software engineers who are compensated at a rate of not less than $27.63 per hour.

Wisconsin requires that executive, administrative, and professional employees spend no more than 20 percent of their working time engaged in duties which are not directly and closely related to exempt work (or 40 percent for executive and administrative employees in retail or service establishments). Outside sales employees must spend 80 percent of their working time away from the employer's place of business.

The state does not reference (and may not recognize) the “highly compensated employee” exemption for those earning more than $107,432 per year.

State

Contact

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Division of Labor Equal Rights Division Labor Standards Bureau

Regulations

Wisconsin Annotated Statutes
Chapter 104 Minimum Wage Law
104.01 Definitions

Department Of Workforce Development
Chapter DWD 274 Hours Of Work And Overtime

Federal

Contact

The Department of Labor is the federal agency that monitors hours worked.

Regulations

Regulations for exempt employees can be found in CFR 29 Part 541, Defining And Delimiting The Exemptions For Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer And Outside Sales Employees