Executive exemption
Iowa exempts executive employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. IA Statutes 91D.1(2)(a); IA Admin. Rules 347-215.4(1) To qualify as an executive employee, and employee must:
- perform primary duties consisting of the management of the enterprise in which the employee is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof;
- customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees therein;
- have the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring or firing and as to the advancement and promotion or any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight;
- customarily and regularly exercises 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, except for an employee who is in sole charge of an independent establishment or a physically separated branch establishment, or who owns at least a 20% interest in the enterprise in which he is employed; and
- be paid on a salary basis at a rate of not less than $310 per week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities.
Iowa also exempts high salaried executive employees who:
- are paid a salary of at least $500 per week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities;
- 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.
Administrative exemption
Iowa exempts bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. IA Statutes 91D.1(2)(a); IA Admin. Rules 875-215.4(1) 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 $310 a week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities; or
- in the case of academic administrative personnel, be paid either a salary of $310 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.
Iowa also exempts high salaried administrative employees who:
- are paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $500 a week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities;
- 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.
Professional exemption
Iowa exempts bona fide administrative employees from its minimum wage and overtime requirements. IA Statutes 91D.1(2)(a); IA Admin. Rules 875-215.4(1) 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;
- perform 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 $340 a week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities, 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;
Iowa also exempts high salaried professional employees who:
- are paid on a salary or fee basis at a rate of at least $500 a week, exclusive of board, lodging, or other facilities;
- perform primary duties consisting of:
- 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
Outside salesman exemption
Iowa exempts outside salesmen from it minimum wage and overtime if they are employed for the purpose of and who is customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business in::
- making sales which include any sale, exchange, contract to sell, consignment for sale, shipment for sale, or other disposition, or
- obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer.
The hours worked by an outside salesman that exceeds 20% of the hours worked in a workweek that are not work related to the outside salesman duties may not be regarded as exempt work, and an employer must pay the outside salesman minimum wage rates and overtime for the nonexempt time. Exempt outside salesman work includes work performed incidental to and in conjunction with the employee’s outside sales or solicitations, including incidental deliveries and collections.
Computer employee exemption
Iowa minimum wage law does not address computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker. Because Iowa minimum wage law does not address computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker, the standards set forth by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act related to computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled workers would likely apply.
Other minimum wage and overtime exemptions
Other exemptions to Iowa’s minimum wage and overtime requirements may include:
- any employees to the extent that the employee is exempted by regulations, order, or certificate of the Secretary of Labor issued under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 214;
- employees working for a retail or service establishment (except an establishment or employee engaged in laundering, cleaning, or repairing clothing or fabrics or an establishment engaged in the operation of a hospital, institution, or school described and defined in 215.3(11)(e)) if more than 50 percent of the establishment’s annual dollar volume of sales of goods or services is made within the state in which the establishment is located, and the establishment is not in an enterprise described and defined in 215.3(11). A “retail or service establishment” shall mean an establishment 75% of whose annual dollar volume of sales of goods or services (or of both) is not for resale and is recognized as retail sales or services in the particular industry;
- employees working for an establishment which is an amusement or recreational establishment, organized camp, or religious or nonprofit education conference center, if:
- It does not operate for more than seven months in any calendar year, or
- during the preceding calendar year, its average receipts for any six (6) months of such year were not more than 33â…“% of its average receipts for the other six (6) months of the year, except that the exemption provided does not apply with respect to any employee of a private entity engaged in providing services or facilities (other than a private entity engaged in providing services and facilities directly related to skiing) in a national park or a national forest or on land in the National Wildlife Refuge System, under a contract with the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture;
- employees working for an establishment which qualifies as an exempt retail establishment under 215.4(2) and is recognized as a retail establishment in the particular industry notwithstanding that the establishment makes or processes at the retail establishment the goods that it sells, provided that more than 85 percent of the establishment’s annual dollar volume of sales of goods so made or processed is made within the state in which the establishment is located;
- employees employed in the catching, taking, propagating, harvesting, cultivating, or farming of any kind of fish, shellfish, crustacean, sponges, seaweeds, or other aquatic forms of animal and vegetable life, or the first processing, canning or packing such marine products at sea as an incident to, or in conjunction with, such fishing operations, including the going to and returning from work and loading and unloading when performed by any employee;
- employees employed in agriculture:
- if the employees are employed by an employer who did not, during any calendar quarter during the preceding calendar year, use more than 500 person-days of agricultural labor;
- if the employees are the parents, spouses, children, or other members of the employer’s immediate family;
- if the employees:
- are employed as a hand harvest laborers and are paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation which has been, and are customarily and generally recognized as having been, paid on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment,
- commutes daily from the employee’s permanent residence to the farm on which the employees are employed, and
- have been employed in agriculture less than 13 weeks during the preceding calendar year;
- if the employees (other than an employee described in 215.4(6)(c)):
- are 16 years of age or under and are employed as a hand harvest laborer, are paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation which has been, and are customarily and generally recognized as having been, paid on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment;
- are employed on the same farm as the employees’ parents or persons standing in the place of the employees’ parents, and
- are paid at the same piece rate as employees over age 16 are paid on the same farm; or
- if the employees are principally engaged in the range production of livestock;
- employees working in connection with the publication of any weekly, semiweekly, or daily newspaper with a circulation of less than 4,000, having the major part of its circulation within the county where published or counties contiguous thereto;
- switchboard operators employed by an independently owned public telephone company which has not more than 750 stations;
- employees working as stevedores on a vessel other than an American vessel; and
- employees working on a casual basis in domestic service employment to provide babysitting services or any employee employed in domestic service employment to provide companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves.
