272 Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofi t Organizations
compensation. Title 29, Chapter V, Part 541 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (1993) defi nes exempt employees as those who spend 80 percent
of their work time performing administrative, executive, or professional
duties.
Administrative employees ’ primary responsibilities consist of performing
offi ce - based duties related to the implementation of management policies
or general business operations. They customarily and regularly exercise
discretion and independent judgment.
Executive employees exercise discretionary decision - making powers and
supervise two or more employees. They have the authority to hire and fi re
employees, make recommendations as to advancement and promotion,
and make any other change of status of the employees they supervise.
Professional employees perform duties requiring advanced knowledge
acquired through specialized intellectual instruction. Their work is pre-
dominantly intellectual and varied in character and is of such character
that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standard-
ized in relation to a given time period.
Computer - related employees are computer systems analysts, computer pro-
grammers, software engineers, and other similarly skilled positions. Their
primary duties consist of the application of systems analysis techniques
and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware,
software, or system functional specifi cations; the design, development,
documentation, analysis, creation, testing, or modifi cation of computer
systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user
or system design specifi cations; or the design, documentation, testing, cre-
ation, or modifi cation of computer programs related to machine operating
systems [E541.1, § 541.2, § 541.3, § 541.4].
Employees are considered to be paid on a salary basis within the mean-
ing of the FLSA if each pay period they receive a predetermined amount
that constitutes all or part of their compensation and is not subject to
reduction because of the quality or quantity of the work they performed.
This means that employers are prohibited from making hourly deductions
of pay from exempt employees.
Agencies with restricted budgets should not be tempted to coerce
employees to work overtime without pay. The Florida Department of
Children and Families (DCF) denied overtime to 126 Palm Beach County
abuse investigators. The department employees said their supervisors used
fear and coercion to convince them to work overtime without reporting it.
An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor ’ s Wage and Hour Divi-
sion found the employees averaged more than ten hours a week without