Executive exemption
Connecticut exempts bona fide executive employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an executive employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of enterprise management or management of a customarily recognized department or subdivision of the enterprise;
- customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees;
- have the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring or firing, advancement and promotion, or any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight;
- customarily and regularly exercise discretionary powers;
- devote no more than 20% of his or her workweek (40% if he or she is employed by a retail or service establishment) to nonexempt work, that is, not directly and closely related to his or her executive duties, unless the employee owns a 20% interest in the enterprise or a recognized department or subdivision; and
- be paid an a salary basis of at least $400 per week.
Connecticut also exempts high salaried executive employees who:
- are paid a salary of at least $475 per week;
- perform primary duties consisting of enterprise management or management of a customarily recognized department or subdivision of the enterprise; and
- customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees.
Connecticut also exempts individuals training for executive employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements if:
- the training period last no longer than six (6) months;
- the employee is paid a salary of at least $375 per week;
- the Connecticut Department of Labor has approved a tentative outline of the training program; and
- the employer pays the tuition and fees for any instruction and reimburses the employee for travel expenses to and from each destination other than local, where the instruction or training is provided.
CT Statute 31-58(f); CT Reg. 31-60-14
Salary basis
In Connecticut, to meet the salary basis standard:
- the employee must receive a predetermined amount
- the employee must be paid each pay period on a weekly or less frequent basis, regardless of the number of days or hours worked,
- the amount paid may not be reduced because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed except when:
- During the initial and terminal weeks of employment, an employer may pay a proportionate part of an employee’s salary for the time actually worked;
- Deductions may be made for one or more full days if the employee is absent for personal reasons other than sickness or accident;
- Deductions may be made for one or more full days of sickness or disability provided the deduction is made pursuant to a bona fide plan, policy or practice of making deductions from an employee’s salary after sickness or disability leave has been exhausted which has been disclosed to the employee in accordance with CT Stat. 31-71f. Employers may deduct less than one full day from work if the employee is absent pursuant to a bona fide paid time off benefits plan (e.g. vacation leave, paid time off) that specifically authorizes the substitution or reduction from accrued benefits for the time that an employee is absent from work, provided the employee receives payment in an amount equal to his guaranteed salary.
- Deductions may be made for absences of less than one full day taken pursuant to the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act or the Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act.
- Deductions may be made for one or more full days if the employee is absent as a result of a disciplinary suspension for violating a safety rule of major significance. Safety rules of major significance include only those relating to the prevention of serious danger to the employer’s premises, or to other employees. Employers may not deduct an exempt executive employee for disciplinary suspension for violating ordinary employee conduct rules.
- the employer must provide the employee with the proper notice required by CT Stat. 31-71f.
Employer may not make the following deductions from the salary of an employee for whom it exempts from minimum wage and overtime requirements as an executive employee:
- lack of work occasioned by the operation of the employer
- jury duty or attendance at a judicial proceedings in the capacity of a witness
- temporary military leave
For jury duty, attending judicial proceeding as a witness, or temporary military leave, an employer may offset payments an employee receives for these services against the employee’s regular salary during the week of such absence.
Administrative exemption
Connecticut exempts bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an administrative employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of either:
- performing office or nonmanual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of his employer or his employer’s customers, or
- performing functions in the administration of a school system or educational establishment or institution, or of a department or subdivision thereof, in work directly related to the academic instruction or training carried on therein;
- customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment;
- engage in work where he or she:
- regularly assists a proprietor or a bona fide executive or administrative employee;
- performs work under only general supervision along specialized or technical lines requiring special training, experience or knowledge; or
- executes special assignments under general supervision;
- devote no more than 20% of his or her workweek (40% if he or she is employed by a retail or service establishment) to nonexempt work that is not directly and closely related to his or her administrative duties; and
- be paid:
- on a salary or fee basis at a rate of not less than $400 a week; or
- in the case of academic administrative personnel, be paid either a salary of $400 per week or a salary that is equal to or greater than the entrance salary for teachers in the school system or educational establishment or institution in which he or she works.
Connecticut also exempts high salaried administrative employees who:
- are paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $475 a week;
- perform primary duty consisting of:
- performing office or nonmanual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of his employer or his employer’s customers, or
- performing functions in the administration of a school system or educational establishment or institution, or of a department or subdivision thereof, in work directly related to the academic instruction or training carried on therein;
- exercise discretion and independent judgment.
CT Statute 31-58(f); CT Reg. 31-60-15
Salary basis
See Salary Basis under Executive exemption. CT Reg. 31-60-15
Fee basis
Fee basis means an agreed amount for accomplishing of a single task regardless of the time required for its completion. A fee basis payment is permitted only for jobs that are unique in nature rather than for a series of jobs which are repeated an indefinite number of times and for which payment on an identical basis is made over and over again. CT Reg. 31-60-15
Professional exemption
Connecticut exempts bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. To qualify as an administrative employee, an employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of either:
- work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning, usually obtained by a prolonged course of specialized instruction and study, as distinguished from a general academic education and from an apprenticeship, and from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes;
- work that is original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, as opposed to work which can be produced by a person endowed with general manual or intellectual ability and training, and the result of which depends primarily on his or her invention, imagination, or talent; or
- teach, tutor, instruct, or lecture in the activity of imparting knowledge while employed and engaged in this activity as a teacher certified or recognized as such in the school system or educational establishment or institution by which he or she is employed;
- consistently exercise discretion and judgment;
- do work that is mainly intellectual and varied, as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work, and is of such character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time;
- devote no more than 20% of his or her workweek on activities not essentially a part of and necessarily incident to professional duties; and
- be paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of not less than $400 a week, unless he or she:
- holds a valid license and is engaged in the practice of law or medicine;
- holds the requisite academic degree for the general practice of medicine and is engaged in an internship or resident program; or
- is an employee employed and engaged as a teacher;
Connecticut also exempts high salaried professional employees who:
- are paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $475 a week;
- perform primary duties consisting of:
- work in the learned field or work as a teacher in the activity of imparting knowledge which requires consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; or
- work that requires invention, imagination or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor.
CT Statute 31-58(f); CT Reg. 31-60-16
Salary basis
See Salary Basis under Executive exemption. CT Reg. 31-60-16
Fee basis
See Salary Basis under Administrative exemption. CT Reg. 31-60-16
Outside salesman exemption
Connecticut exempts outside salesmen from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. It relies on the definition set forth pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for its outside salesman requirements. CT Statute 31-58(e)
Computer employee exemption
Connecticut minimum wage law does exempt computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers from its minimum wage or overtime requirements. However, because most employees working in Connecticut are subject only to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the definition of computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker set forth in that law would apply.
Other minimum wage and overtime exemptions
Connecticut also exempts the following employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements:
- individuals working in camps or resorts which are open no more than six months of the year;
- individuals working in domestic service in or about a private home, except any individual in domestic service employment as defined in the regulations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act;
- individuals working for the federal government;
- individuals engaged in the activities of an educational, charitable, religious, scientific, historical, literary, or nonprofit organization where the employer-employee relationship does not, in fact, exist or where the services rendered to such organizations are on a voluntary basis;
- individuals working as head residents or resident assistants by a college or university;
- individuals engaged in babysitting; or
- individuals working for a nonprofit theater, provided such theater does not operate for more than seven (7) months in any calendar year.
Overtime only exemptions
Connecticut exempts the following employees from its overtime requirements only. Employers are required to comply with any minimum wage requirements related to these employees:
- any driver or helper, excluding drivers or helpers employed by exempt employers, with respect to whom the Interstate Commerce Commission or its successor agency or the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service pursuant to the provisions of applicable federal law or regulation of any employee of a carrier by air subject to the Railway Labor Act or any employee of any employer subject to said Railway Labor Act;
- any employee employed as a seaman;
- any employee employed as an announcer, a news editor or chief engineer by a radio station or television station;
- any inside salesperson whose sole duty is to sell a product or service (1) whose regular rate of pay is in excess of two times the minimum hourly rate applicable to him under section 31-58, (2) more than half of whose compensation for a representative period, being not less than one month, represents commissions on goods or services, and (3) who does not work more than fifty-four hours during a work week of seven consecutive calendar days. In determining the proportion of compensation representing commissions, all earnings resulting from the application of a bona fide commission rate shall be deemed commissions on goods or services without regard to whether the computed commissions exceed the draw or guarantee;
- any person employed as a taxicab driver by any employer engaged in the business of operating a taxicab, if such driver is paid forty per cent or more of the fares recorded on the meter of the taxicab operated by him;
- any person employed in the capacity of a household delivery route salesman engaged in delivering milk or bakery products to consumers and who is paid on a commission basis as defined in the regulations of the Labor Commissioner issued pursuant to section 31-60;
- any salesman primarily engaged in selling automobiles. For the purposes of this subdivision, “salesman” includes any person employed by a licensed new car dealer (1) whose primary duty is to sell maintenance and repair services, (2) whose regular rate of pay is in excess of two times the minimum hourly rate applicable to him under the provisions of section 31-58, (3) more than half of whose compensation for a representative period, being not less than one month, represents commissions on goods or services, and (4) who does not work more than fifty-four hours during a work week of seven consecutive days. In determining the proportion of compensation representing commissions, all earnings resulting from the application of a bona fide commission rate shall be deemed commissions on goods or services without regard to whether the computed commissions exceed the draw or guarantee;
- any person employed in agriculture;
- any permanent paid members of the uniformed police force of municipalities and permanent paid members of the uniformed firefighters of municipalities;
- any person employed as a firefighter by a private nonprofit corporation which on May 24, 1984, has a valid contract with any municipality to extinguish fires and protect its inhabitants from loss by fire;
- any person, except a person paid on an hourly basis, employed as a beer delivery truck driver by a licensed distributor, as defined in section 12-433;
- any person employed as a mechanic primarily engaged in the servicing of motor vehicles, as defined in section 14-1, or farm implements, as defined in section 14-1, by a nonmanufacturing employer primarily engaged in the business of selling such vehicles or implements to consumers, to the extent that such employees are exempt under the federal Wage-Hour and Equal Pay Act, 29 USC 201 et seq. and 29 USC 213(b)(10), provided such person’s actual weekly earnings exceed an amount equal to the total of (1) such person’s basic contractual hourly rate of pay times the number of hours such person has actually worked plus (2) such person’s basic contractual hourly rate of pay times one-half the number of hours such person has actually worked in excess of forty hours in such week. For the purposes of this section, “basic contractual hourly rate” means the compensation payable to a person at an hourly rate separate from and exclusive of any flat rate, incentive rate or any other basis of calculation; or
- any mortgage loan originator, as defined in section 36a-485, who is a highly compensated employee, as defined in 29 CFR 541.601, provided this subdivision shall not apply to an individual who performs the functions of a mortgage loan originator solely from the office of such mortgage loan originator’s employer. For purposes of this subdivision, an office in the mortgage loan originator’s home shall not be considered the office of such mortgage loan originator’s employer. Beginning on October 1, 2012, the total annual compensation for purposes of Subsection (a) of 29 CFR 541.601 shall be increased annually, effective October first of each year, based on the percentage increase, from year to year, in the average of all workers’ weekly earnings as determined by the Labor Commissioner pursuant to subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of section 31-309.
