82 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Medical interns and residents who hold the requisite academic degree for the general practice of medicine460 (e) Examples of Employees Who Do Not Qualify for the Learned Professional Exemption The following categories of employees do not qualify for the learned professional exemption: Electricians Licensed practical nurses who do not possess a specialized advanced academic degree Beauticians Technicians Paralegals and legal assistants Cooks who perform predominantly routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work Bookkeepers and accounting clerks who normally perform routine work461 Most airline pilots462 Case managers at drug treatment centers when their position only requires a general academic education463 (2) Creative Professional Exemption To qualify for the creative professional employee exemption, both of the following tests must be met: 1. Effective January 1, 2020, the employee must be compensated on a salary basis at a rate not less than $684.00 per week. The 2024 DOL Final Rule proposed to 460 29 C.F.R. § 541.304(a)(2). 461 29 C.F.R. § 541.301. 462 Generally, pilots do not qualify for the learned professional exemption. However, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division recently has taken a position of non-enforcement with regard to pilots and co-pilots of airplanes who hold FAA Airline Transport Certificates or Commercial Certificates, receive compensation on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $455.00 per week, and fly as business or company pilots. DOL Wage & Hour Opinion Letter FLSA2018-3 (Jan. 5, 2018). Neither the DOL’s 2019 Final Rule nor the enjoined 2024 Final Rule addresses whether airline pilots have to meet the updated minimum salary requirement. 463 DLS Opinion Letter MW-2001-016 (Nov. 19, 2001).
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