What Are Exempt Job Duties
Adminstrative

The most difficult of the exempt job classifications is the administrative exemption. Employees are performing exempt administrative job duties if they do

• (a) nonmanual or office work which
• (b) "supports" the overall business operations of the employer, and which
• (c) involves exercising independent judgment and discretion on important matters.

Exempt administrative work is limited to support or "staff" jobs, as distinguished from "production" or "operations" or "line" jobs. Administrative employees are engaged in work related to company policy or the general operations of the employer, as distinguished from work related to "producing" what the employer "sells." For example, employees involved in preparing a company's payroll are performing administrative work (but not necessarily exempt work), while employees involved in manufacturing products sold to customers are not.

To be exempt, the work must be at a relatively high-level, involve a good deal of judgment and discretion, and be important to the overall operation of the enterprise. An example of administratively exempt work could be the buyer for a department store. He or she performs nonmanual or office work and is not engaged in production or sales. The job involves work which is necessary to the overall operation of the store - selecting merchandize to be ordered as inventory. It is important work, since having the right inventory (and the right amount of inventory) is crucial to the overall well-being of the store's business. It involves the exercise of a good deal of important judgment and discretion, since it is up to the buyer to select items which will sell in sufficient quantity and at sufficient margins to be profitable. Other examples of administratively exempt employees might be planners and true administrative assistants (as differentiated from secretaries with fancy titles). Bookkeepers, many "executive secretaries," loan officers, and most employees who operate machines or devices are not administratively exempt employees.

Merely clerical work may be administrative, but it is not exempt. Most secretaries, for example, may accurately be said to be performing administrative work, but their jobs are not usually exempt. Similarly, filing, filling out forms and preparing routine reports, answering telephones, making travel arrangements, working on customer "help desks," and similar jobs are not likely to be high-level enough to be administratively exempt. Some primarily clerical workers do in fact exercise some discretion and judgment in their jobs. However, to "count" the exercise of judgment and discretion must be about matters of considerable importance to the operation of the enterprise as a whole. Routinely ordering supplies (and even selecting which vendor to buy paper clips from) is not likely to be considered high-level enough to qualify the employee for administratively exempt status. Some "secretaries" may indeed be high-level, administratively exempt employees (if they are paid on a salary basis), while some employees with fancy titles (e.g., "administrative assistant") may really be performing nonexempt clerical duties. Each job must be evaluated on a position-by-position and company-by-company basis.

If you feel that you have been misclassified as an exempt administrative employee and would like to discuss the matter with an attorney, please contact us or fill out our questionnaire and we will call you.