Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers exempt from the federal minimum wage fall into a defined set of categories: bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees who meet the salary and duties tests; highly compensated employees; outside sales workers; certain computer professionals; farmworkers on small farms and some other agricultural roles; commercial fishing crews; employees of seasonal amusement or recreational businesses; workers under 20 during their first 90 days; full-time students, apprentices, and student learners covered by special certificates; and workers with disabilities employed under a Section 14(c) certificate. Separately, some workers are not covered by the FLSA at all, either because their employer is too small or because they are genuine independent contractors rather than employees.
Not Covered Is Not the Same as Exempt
Before working through the exemption list, it helps to separate two different reasons a worker might not receive the federal minimum wage. Some workers are covered employees who happen to fall into a statutory exemption. Others are outside the FLSA’s reach in the first place.
The FLSA generally reaches businesses with at least two employees and annual gross sales or business volume of at least $500,000. Hospitals, schools, preschools, nursing facilities, and government agencies are covered regardless of revenue.1U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #14 – Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) A small local business below that threshold may not trigger enterprise coverage. Even then, individual workers can be covered if their own work involves interstate commerce, such as regularly making out-of-state calls, handling goods shipped across state lines, or processing payments from out-of-state customers.2eCFR. 29 CFR Part 779 Subpart B – Employment to Which the Act May Apply
Independent contractors also fall outside the FLSA because the law only protects employees. The Department of Labor uses an economic reality test that looks at the totality of the working relationship, including the opportunity for profit or loss, the permanence of the arrangement, and the degree of control the hiring party exercises.3U.S. Department of Labor. Employment Relationship Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Misclassification is one of the most common FLSA disputes, and a worker labeled a contractor may in fact be an employee entitled to minimum wage.
Executive, Administrative, and Professional Employees
The best-known exemptions are the white-collar exemptions under Section 13(a)(1). To qualify, an employee has to clear a three-part test: salary basis, salary level, and duties.4eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees
The salary floor is currently $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. A 2024 attempt by the Department of Labor to raise that number was vacated by a federal court in November 2024, so the 2019 level still governs enforcement.5U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption Pay alone never decides the question. The duties also have to match one of the specific categories below.
Executive
The employee’s primary duty must be managing the business or a recognized department. They must direct the work of at least two full-time employees or the equivalent, and they must have real authority over hiring and firing decisions, or their recommendations on those decisions must carry meaningful weight.
Administrative
The administrative exemption covers office or non-manual work tied directly to management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers. The employee must exercise independent judgment on matters of significance, not merely apply established procedures. Finance, human resources, and compliance roles with genuine decision-making authority often fit here.
Learned and Creative Professionals
The learned professional exemption applies to work that requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, ordinarily acquired through prolonged specialized instruction. Law, medicine, engineering, and accounting are typical examples. The work must be primarily intellectual and require consistent judgment.
A separate creative professional exemption covers work whose primary duty requires invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized artistic or creative field such as music, writing, acting, or graphic arts. A novelist who chooses their own subjects generally qualifies; a photographer who only retouches images to instructions generally does not.6eCFR. 29 CFR 541.302 – Creative Professionals
Highly Compensated Employees
A shorter test applies to workers earning at least $107,432 per year in total annual compensation.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #17H – Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemption That figure, like the standard salary threshold, reverted to the 2019 level after the 2024 rule was vacated. The employee must perform office or non-manual work and regularly perform at least one duty from the executive, administrative, or professional tests. The high pay level lowers the bar on the duties analysis.
Outside Sales and Computer Employees
Outside sales employees are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime when their primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders and they regularly do that work away from the employer’s place of business. There is no minimum salary. Salespeople who work from a central office by phone or online do not qualify, no matter how similar the job.
Computer professionals such as systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers can be exempt under Section 13(a)(17) if paid either the standard $684 per week on salary or at least $27.63 per hour.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Their duties must involve systems analysis, program design or development, or comparable high-level technical work. Help desk staff, basic office computer users, and hardware repair technicians do not qualify.
Farm and Fishing Workers
Agricultural workers on small farms are exempt from the federal minimum wage. The core test: if the employer did not use more than 500 “man-days” of farm labor in any calendar quarter of the preceding year, all agricultural employees are exempt.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions A man-day is any day on which an employee performs at least one hour of agricultural work, which works out to roughly seven full-time workers for a quarter.10eCFR. 29 CFR Part 780 – Exemptions Applicable to Agriculture Additional agricultural exemptions apply to immediate family of the farm employer, certain hand-harvest laborers paid by the piece, and workers principally engaged in range livestock production.
Workers catching, harvesting, cultivating, or farming fish, shellfish, sponges, seaweed, or other aquatic life are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime. The exemption extends to first processing, canning, or packing done at sea alongside the fishing operations.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
Seasonal Amusement and Recreational Establishments
Employees of amusement or recreational establishments are exempt from minimum wage and overtime if the business either operates no more than seven months in any calendar year, or its average receipts during any six months of the prior year were no more than one-third of its average receipts for the other six months.11eCFR. 29 CFR 779.385 – May Qualify as Exempt Establishments Seasonal theme parks, summer camps, and ski resorts commonly meet one of the tests.
Youth, Students, Apprentices, and Workers with Disabilities
Workers under 20 can be paid a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days with a given employer.12U.S. Department of Labor. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act After 90 days, or when the employee turns 20, whichever is first, the full minimum wage applies. An employer cannot displace existing workers to use this rate.
Full-time students working in retail, service, agriculture, or at their college or university can be paid 85 percent of the federal minimum wage under a Department of Labor certificate, which also caps their hours.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 214 – Employment Under Special Certificates The employer must obtain the certificate before paying the reduced rate; student status alone is not enough. Registered apprentices and student learners in approved vocational programs can also earn sub-minimum wages under written agreements and DOL approval.
Under Section 14(c), an employer with a Wage and Hour Division certificate can pay a worker whose disability actually reduces productive capacity for a specific job a wage set by comparing that worker’s output to experienced workers without disabilities doing the same task.14U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #39 – The Employment of Workers with Disabilities at Subminimum Wages Having a disability is not itself enough; the disability must impair productivity for the actual work. The program remains in effect: a proposal to phase it out was formally withdrawn in July 2025.15Federal Register. Employment of Workers With Disabilities Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act – Withdrawal Some states ban sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities regardless.
Tipped Workers Are Not Exempt
Tipped employees are sometimes assumed to be exempt, but they are not. A tipped worker, defined as someone who regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips, must still earn at least $7.25 per hour in combined cash wages and tips. Federal law lets an employer pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 and claim up to $5.12 as a tip credit, but the employer has to top up any shortfall.16U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees Many states set a higher cash wage or disallow the tip credit entirely.
State Law Can Override Federal Exemptions
Federal exemptions do not settle the question by themselves. The FLSA is a floor: state or local rules that offer greater protection prevail, and state minimum wages currently run from $7.25 to over $17 per hour.17U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Opinion Letter FLSA2026-4 Some states recognize fewer exemptions than the FLSA or use higher salary thresholds for white-collar workers, so an employee exempt under federal law can still be entitled to a state minimum wage. Check both.
The Cost of Getting an Exemption Wrong
Treating a non-exempt employee as exempt exposes the employer to the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, along with the worker’s attorney’s fees and costs.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties The Department of Labor can also assess civil money penalties.19U.S. Department of Labor. Small Entity Compliance Guide Workers generally have two years to sue for unpaid wages, extended to three years for willful violations, and because the clock runs from each paycheck, a long-standing misclassification can pile up years of back-pay liability.20Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations