Is my Computer Related Occupation Exempt From Overtime?

Computer related jobs that meet several tests may be exempt from overtime. This is most commonly true of jobs with the title of:
- computer programmer,
- systems analyst,
- computer systems analyst,
- computer programmer analyst,
- applications programmer,
- applications systems analyst,
- applications systems analyst/programmer/software engineer,
- software specialist,
- systems engineer, and
- systems specialist.
To determine if your computer related job is exempt, it must have ALL the following criteria:
- You must be primarily engaged in intellectual or creative work that requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment,
- You must be highly skilled and proficient in the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized information to computer systems analysis, programming and software engineering.
- You must be paid at least $47.81 per hour or $99,481.80 per year.
- You must be primarily engaged in one or more of the following duties:
- the application of systems analysis techniques and procedures (including consulting with users) to determine hardware, software or system functional specifications; or
- the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing or modification of computer systems or programs (including protypes) based on and related to, user or system design specifications; or
- the design, documentation, testing, creation or modification of computer programs related to the design of software or hardware for computer operating systems.
- a combination of these duties, the performance of which requires the same level of skills.



Even if you are exempt, if you work over eight hours in a day or forty hours a week and are not paid your hourly wage for this time, you may be entitled to overtime for the hours you have worked.


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If you believe that you are not getting overtime wages when you should use our detailed Overtime Compensation Question form to send us a detailed question about your overtime situation.