86 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP programming or other similarly skilled computer-related occupations identified in the primary duties test described above, are not exempt.478 Finally, mere maintenance and installation of computer systems will not meet the standards for exemption.479 4. Highly Compensated Employee Exemption Both the Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Law and the FLSA exempt certain “highly compensated employees” from overtime requirements. As with the definitions of the administrative, executive, and professional exemptions, Massachusetts law relies on the definition for “highly compensated employees” set forth in the federal regulations.480 Under this exemption, employees are exempt from overtime if: 1. Effective January 1, 2020, the employee must earn a total annual compensation of $107,432 or more, which includes at least $684.00 per week paid on a salary basis. The 2024 DOL Final Rule proposed to increase the annual compensation to $132,964 per year, including at least $844 per week, as of July 1, 2024 and then to $151,164, including at least $1,128 per week, beginning on January 1, 2025, but the rule is enjoined as of the date of publication. 2. The employee’s primary duty includes performing office or non-manual work. 3. The employee customarily and regularly performs at least one of the exempt duties or responsibilities of an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee.481 According to the federal regulations, because a high level of compensation is a strong indicator of an employee’s exempt status, a detailed analysis of the employee’s job duties is unnecessary.482 Thus, a highly compensated employee will qualify for this exemption if the employee customarily and regularly performs one or more of the exempt duties or responsibilities of an executive, administrative, or professional employee.483 For example, an employee may qualify as a highly compensated executive employee if he or she customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees, even though the employee does not meet all of the other requirements for the executive exemption.484 478 Id. 479 DOL Wage & Hour Opinion Letter FLSA2006-42 (Oct. 26, 2006). 480 DLS Opinion Letter MW-2008-004 (July 14, 2008); Litz v. St. Consulting Group Inc., 772 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2014). 481 29 C.F.R. § 541.601; DOL Wage & Hour Fact Sheet #17H (July 2008). 482 29 C.F.R. § 541.601(c). 483 Id. 484 Id.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTkwMTQ4