Quick Answer: Salaried employees in Florida are protected by federal FLSA rules, not state-specific laws. To be exempt from overtime, a salaried employee must earn at least $684/week ($35,568/year) and perform executive, administrative, or professional duties. Salaried employees earning below this threshold — or whose duties don't qualify — are entitled to overtime pay at 1.5x their regular rate for hours over 40 per week.

  • Federal exempt salary threshold: $684/week ($35,568/year)
  • Florida has no separate state salary threshold
  • Salary alone does not make an employee exempt — duties matter too
  • Salaried non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime
  • At-will employment applies to salaried workers

Florida labor laws for salaried employees are primarily federal laws. Florida does not have its own salary threshold, overtime rules, or classification standards for salaried workers. Everything is governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and enforced by the US Department of Labor.

Exempt vs. Non-Exempt: The Key Distinction

Being paid a salary does not automatically make an employee exempt from overtime. The FLSA requires that all three of the following tests be met for an employee to be classified as exempt:

  1. Salary basis test: The employee must receive a predetermined, fixed salary that is not reduced based on the quality or quantity of work performed. Deductions from salary are only permitted in limited circumstances (full-day absences for personal reasons, sickness or disability under a bona fide plan, major safety rule violations, etc.).
  2. Salary level test: The salary must be at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually). This is the federal threshold. Some states (like New York and California) have higher thresholds, but Florida does not.
  3. Duties test: The employee's primary duties must fall within one of the recognized exemption categories: executive, administrative, professional, computer professional, or outside sales.
The FLSA's "white collar" exemptions are defined in 29 CFR Part 541. The current salary threshold of $684/week was established by the DOL's 2019 final rule and has not been updated since, though the DOL has proposed increases.

The Duties Test: Five Exemption Categories Explained

Meeting the salary threshold is only half the equation. This is the part of florida labor laws for salaried employees that trips up the most employers, because a job title or a paycheck amount alone never settles the question — the employee's actual day-to-day work has to fit one of five narrowly defined categories under 29 CFR Part 541.

  • Executive exemption: The employee's primary duty must be managing the business, or a customarily recognized department or subdivision of it. The employee must also regularly direct the work of at least two or more other full-time employees (or the equivalent), and must have genuine authority to hire or fire — or their recommendations on hiring, firing, and promotion must be given real weight, not just a rubber-stamp.
  • Administrative exemption: The primary duty must be office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or its customers, and the role must involve the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of real significance — not just following a fixed checklist or applying well-established procedures.
  • Professional exemption: This covers two sub-types. The "learned professional" exemption applies to work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a prolonged course of specialized study (law, medicine, accounting, engineering, registered nursing, and similar fields). The "creative professional" exemption applies to work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized artistic or creative field.
  • Computer professional exemption: Covers computer systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, and similarly skilled workers whose primary duty involves systems analysis, or the design, development, documentation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs. This exemption can be met either through the standard $684/week salary or through an hourly rate of at least $27.63/hour — one of the only exemptions that permits hourly pay.
  • Outside sales exemption: The employee's primary duty must be making sales or obtaining orders or contracts, and the employee must customarily and regularly work away from the employer's place of business. Notably, this is the one exemption category with no salary requirement at all — an outside sales employee can be exempt regardless of how much they're paid.

An employee who spends most of their time on the same tasks as the hourly staff around them — even if a manager occasionally delegates a supervisory task — generally has not met the duties test, no matter what the job title says or how the paycheck is structured.

Common Misclassification Issues in Florida

Misclassification — treating a non-exempt employee as exempt — is one of the most common FLSA violations. In Florida, common misclassification scenarios include:

  • Assistant managers in retail and fast food: Given a "manager" title and a salary just above $684/week, but spending most of their time performing the same work as hourly employees (running registers, stocking shelves, making food).
  • Administrative assistants: Classified as exempt "administrative" employees but performing primarily clerical work without exercising independent judgment.
  • IT support staff: Classified as exempt "computer professionals" but performing help desk and troubleshooting work rather than systems analysis or programming.
  • Salaried employees earning below the threshold: Some employers incorrectly assume that any salaried employee is exempt, regardless of salary level.

A few additional red flags are worth watching for, since they show up repeatedly in Florida wage-and-hour disputes:

  • Improper salary deductions: An employer that docks an "exempt" employee's pay for a partial-day absence, a short-staffed shift, or as informal discipline may have broken the salary basis test — which can jeopardize the exemption for that employee, and sometimes for everyone in the same job classification.
  • No real decision-making authority: An "exempt" employee who can't approve schedules, discipline staff, set prices, or make purchasing decisions without asking a superior likely doesn't meet the discretion-and-independent-judgment standard the administrative exemption requires.
  • Working substantial unpaid overtime "because you're salaried": Being paid a salary is never, by itself, a reason an employee isn't owed overtime. If the salary and duties tests aren't both satisfied, hours worked over 40 in a week are still owed at time-and-a-half.
  • Multiple employees in the same role, different classifications: If some employees doing identical work are classified hourly and others salaried-exempt with no meaningful difference in duties, that inconsistency is often a sign the exempt classification isn't well supported.

Overtime for Salaried Non-Exempt Employees

Salaried employees who do not meet all three exemption tests are entitled to overtime pay. Calculating overtime for salaried non-exempt employees requires determining their regular hourly rate:

  • Standard method: Divide the weekly salary by the number of hours the salary is intended to cover (usually 40). For example, a salaried employee earning $600/week has a regular rate of $15.00/hr and an overtime rate of $22.50/hr.
  • Fluctuating workweek method: If the employee's hours vary from week to week and there is a clear mutual understanding, the regular rate is calculated by dividing the weekly salary by all hours worked that week. The overtime premium is half the regular rate (since the straight-time portion is already covered by the salary).

Worked Examples: Is This Employee Exempt?

Because the salary and duties tests are independent — an employee must pass both — it helps to walk through a few borderline cases that come up often in Florida workplaces.

  • Example 1 — fails the salary test: Marisol is a shift lead at a Tampa retail store, paid a fixed salary of $650/week regardless of hours worked. Her title and duties genuinely involve supervising two other employees. Even so, $650/week is below the $684 federal threshold, so she fails the salary level test outright. She is non-exempt and owed overtime for any week she works more than 40 hours — using the standard method, her regular rate is $16.25/hr ($650 ÷ 40), and her overtime rate is $24.38/hr.
  • Example 2 — fails the duties test: Devon is an "assistant manager" at a fast-food restaurant in Orlando, paid $780/week — comfortably above the $684 threshold. But Devon spends roughly 90% of each shift working the register, prepping food, and cleaning, with no authority to hire, fire, or set schedules; a store manager makes those calls. Devon passes the salary test but fails the duties test, because his primary duty isn't management. He is legally non-exempt despite the "manager" title and the salary above $684/week.
  • Example 3 — fails the duties test despite a technical title: Priya is a "computer support specialist" in Jacksonville earning $900/week. Her actual work is resetting passwords, troubleshooting printers, and staffing a help desk — not systems analysis, programming, or software design. Because her duties don't fit the computer professional exemption's requirements, she's owed overtime even though her salary clears both the general and the computer-employee thresholds.

Other Rights for Salaried Employees in Florida

  • At-will employment: Salaried employees in Florida are generally at-will, meaning they can be terminated at any time for any reason (or no reason) as long as the reason is not discriminatory or retaliatory.
  • Final paycheck: Florida has no law requiring immediate payment of final wages. The federal FLSA requires payment by the next regular payday.
  • Non-compete agreements: Florida enforces non-compete agreements for salaried employees under Florida Statute 542.335, but they must be reasonable in time, area, and line of business.
  • Wage theft: Salaried employees who are not paid their full salary or overtime can file a complaint with the DOL or bring a private lawsuit under the FLSA.

What to Do If You've Been Misclassified

Because florida labor laws for salaried employees rely on federal enforcement rather than a state labor agency, workers who believe they've been wrongly classified as exempt have two main paths, and can often pursue both:

  • File a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD): The WHD investigates FLSA violations, can require employers to pay back wages, and does not require an attorney to file. Complaints can be filed online or through a regional WHD office covering Florida.
  • Bring a private lawsuit: Employees can sue directly in federal court for unpaid overtime, either individually or as part of a collective action with coworkers in similar roles.

Two details matter for anyone considering either route. First, the FLSA's statute of limitations is generally two years from the date wages were owed, extended to three years if the violation was willful — so back pay claims don't reach indefinitely into the past. Second, employees who win an unpaid-overtime claim are often entitled to liquidated damages equal to the amount of back pay owed, effectively doubling the recovery, unless the employer can show it acted in good faith. The FLSA also prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee for filing a complaint or participating in an investigation or lawsuit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Florida have its own minimum salary threshold for exempt employees?

No. Florida has no state-specific salary threshold. Exempt salaried employees in Florida must meet the same federal threshold that applies nationwide: $684/week ($35,568/year), plus the applicable duties test.

Can a salaried employee in Florida still be owed overtime?

Yes. Being paid a salary doesn't automatically make someone exempt. If the salary falls below $684/week, or the employee's actual duties don't fit an exemption category, they're entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40 in a week — regardless of how their pay is structured.

What's the difference between being "salaried" and being "exempt"?

Salaried just describes how someone is paid — a fixed amount per pay period rather than an hourly rate. Exempt describes a legal classification that removes overtime eligibility, and it only applies when the salary basis, salary level, and duties tests are all satisfied. A salaried employee can still be legally non-exempt and owed overtime.

Can my employer dock my pay for missing part of a workday?

For a truly exempt employee, deductions for partial-day absences are generally not permitted and can jeopardize the exemption. Improper deductions are one of the most common ways employers unintentionally convert an exempt role into a non-exempt one, at least for purposes of a wage claim.

How do I know if I've been misclassified?

Compare your actual day-to-day duties — not your title — against the executive, administrative, professional, computer, or outside sales categories, and confirm your salary meets the $684/week threshold. If either test fails, you're likely non-exempt. When in doubt, a complaint to the WHD or a consultation with an employment attorney can clarify your status.

How far back can I claim unpaid overtime in Florida?

Under the FLSA, the standard statute of limitations is two years from when the unpaid wages were due, extended to three years if the employer's violation was willful.

Related: Florida Labor Laws Guide · Florida Overtime Laws · What Is the FLSA?