The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law administered by the Department of Labor (DOL). This act regulates employment rules such as minimum wage, the rules for determining eligibility for overtime and how overtime is paid. Under the FLSA, employees are entitled to pay at the rate of one and a half times the employee's regular hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a given workweek, unless that employee falls within one or more of the white collar exemption statuses.

Upon request from federal administration, the DOL has amended the rules that pertain to the eligibility to be exempt from the payment of overtime. This new rule changes the minimum salary an employee must be paid to be considered exempt from overtime to $47,476 per year or $913 week per week. This affects all employers who have more than 50 employees, not just Texas Tech University.

Nonexempt Employees:

Under the FLSA, nonexempt employees must be paid minimum wage, are entitled to pay at the rate of one and a half times the employee's regular hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a given workweek and are required to report hours as they are worked.

Exempt Employees:

Employees who are exempt from the FLSA must meet the criteria set forth by the DOL in one or more of the white collar exemptions. The qualifying criteria for a white collar exemption are:

1. The employee must be paid a salary rather than an hourly wage.
2. That salary must meet a minimum dollar amount set by the DOL which is $913 per week or $47,476 annually, and
3. The employees must perform primary duties that the DOL deems consistent with executive, administrative, computer, and professional work. *Human Resources has developed exemption test worksheets to assist departments in verifying that their exempt employees meet the DOL standards.

Exempt employees are generally expected to devote the number of hours necessary to complete their respective tasks. Their compensation doesn't change based on actual hours worked. Exempt employees aren't paid extra for working more than 40 hours per week; they are paid for getting the job done.

The Texas Tech pay plan will be revised to comply with the FLSA rule changes. There are several job titles in pay grades that do not meet the new salary requirement and will no longer be considered exempt. Departmental administrators have been informed of the job titles that are changing from exempt to nonexempt and should be meeting with affected employees. Managers and supervisors are welcome to contact Human Resources Compensation & Operations for further information by emailing hrs.compensation.operations@ttu.edu.

Texas Tech will implement the new rules effective November 1, 2016; however, some departments have chosen to implement the changes effective September 1, 2016.

The Texas Tech University standard workweek is Sunday 12:01 am to Saturday 12:00 am (midnight).

Human Resources is working with Texas Tech University Information Systems to make this transition as seamless as possible. If an employee is staying in the current position and his/her status will follow the position change, the department will only need to check the HR121 report to ensure all changes were made appropriately and funding is correct.

Yes, pay grades 804 and 805 minimum salaries will increase to $48,000 and $50,228 respectively. Human Resources will work with individual departments on making sure individuals meet those new minimum salaries for these pay grades.