Lesser Known Pay Exemptions

While some pay exemptions are fairly well-known, there are some, such as the Computer Professional and Sales exemptions, that are not as common. Meagan Bainbridge and Lukas Clary close out the pay exemptions series on California Employment News with this episode reviewing these two lesser known pay exemptions. Watch this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel here. Show Notes: Lukas:<br /> Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this installment of the California Employment News, an informative video and podcast resource offered by the Labor and Employment Group at Weintraub Tobin. My name is Lukas Clary. I’m a shareholder in the firm’s labor and employment group. I’m joined today by my partner, Meagan Bainbridge, and we are today concluding our series on exemptions by discussing a couple of the lesser known exemptions from federal and state overtime, meal and rest, break and minimum wage laws. Specifically, the computer professional exemption and the sales exemptions. Meagan, let’s start with the computer professional exemption. What can you tell our listeners about that one? Meagan:<br /> Well, to start, exempt computer professionals must work on or with computers as their primary duty. This extends beyond the use of a computer as a daily function and refers to those who are directly working with, creating or altering computer technologies, such as operating systems and software. In order to meet this exemption, the employee must meet both the salary test and the job duties test. As we’ve discussed in previous episodes, to meet the salary test in 2023, California employers must compensate their employees a certain salary. For computer professional employees, this annual salary is $112,065.20. This equals no less than $53.80 an hour. If you’ll recall, this is substantially more than the other exemptions we’ve been discussing. If the salary test can be met, the employee then must meet the job duties test. Part one of the test says that the worker qualifies as a computer professional if the worker is, one, primarily engaged in the intellectual or creative work that requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment, and two, is highly skilled and is highly proficient in the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized information to computer systems analysis, computer software programs, or software engineering. And then part two of the duties test says that the worker is exempt if the primary duties consist of one or more of the following: the application of systems analysis, techniques, and procedures; the design, development, testing or modification of computer systems or programs; and three the documentation, creation, or modification of computer programs related to the design software or computer hardware or related equipment for computer and machines operating systems. The employe