Submission Date:
Question:
Our association library is considering changing some librarian positions from salaried “professional” to hourly. Is that legal?
Answer:
Unless a union contract or other binding document says otherwise, an employee can ALWAYS be converted from “salaried” (meaning they get paid an incrementally doled out annual salary) to “hourly” (meaning they get paid by the hour).
Employees should never be paid less than the applicable minimum wage unless there is a rock-solid reason to declare them exempt from both minimum wage and overtime laws. So long as an employer is keeping accurate payroll records and paying employees in a timely manner, anyone (whether attorneys, librarians, or dentists) can be paid hourly, so long as they are being paid whatever minimum wage applies.
Okay, thanks for a great question! I—wait, you have a follow-up?
Wow. That sounds so simple! So, what is the big deal about “exempt professionals” and such?
Oh, wow. That’s a much bigger question. I could write a book on that.
But I’ll boil it down to seven short paragraphs:
Depending on their duties and salary, some librarians, museum curators and other highly educated employees can be considered “learned professionals,” “professionals,” “executives,” or “administrators” under federal and state labor laws.
Because some librarian job descriptions and rates of compensation can fall into these categories, there is a myth that ALL of them do. This is simply not true; in New York State, the only way a position can fall into the “exempt” category is for it to meet the requirements for exemption under applicable federal regulations AND applicable state regulations.
The confusion about “professionals” being exempt is not made easier by the fact that the federal government uses the categories “creative professional” and “learned professional” (which both have a minimum salary of $684 dollars per week), while the state government has just one “professional” category (which does not have a salary requirement). Under state law, the work of professional employees must be “of such a character that output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time.”
In other words, if a library director is required to be on site for certain hours (say, to open or close the library), the director is not an exempt professional, because an aspect of their work can be “standardized in relation to a given period of time.” This means that such a director could fall into the “executive” or “administrative” category, which both have minimum salaries (at least $1,161.65 per week on and after January 1, 2025, or more for downstate counties).
This baseline salary requirement is why some libraries (especially association libraries) may want to consider paying some librarians hourly, rather than considering them exempt from minimum wage laws.
I appreciate why this might sound-counterintuitive; practically speaking, librarians are without question “professionals,” and librarianship is without question a “profession.” However, as shown above, being a professional doesn’t mean a librarian’s job description will match up with an exempt category under state or federal regulations.
What all this “exempt” and “non-exempt” business is about, at the end of the day, is fairness. If an employee is being compensated fairly (meaning that the money is in line with what people doing similar work under similar circumstances are earning), being paid hourly because your job description doesn't qualify as a professional exempt from minimum wage and overtime laws (state or federal) can be a good thing. It means you cannot be required to work more than 40 hours a week without being paid overtime,[1] which helps set boundaries for a job that truly can never be “done.” Our value is not set by our Department of Labor status.
Thank you for a great question.
[1] Or getting “compensatory time off,” a.k.a. “comp time,” for governmental libraries that provide it.
Tag:
FSLA, Job descriptions, NY Labor Law, Labor, Salaries and Wages
