Do Salaried Employees Get Overtime?

It's a common assumption that a salaried job automatically means no overtime, and it's wrong often enough to matter. Plenty of salaried jobs are legally entitled to overtime pay. What actually decides overtime eligibility is a job's classification under the FLSA as either exempt or non-exempt, and pay structure is only one piece of that classification, not the whole thing.

A job is exempt only if it meets three separate conditions at once. It has to be paid on a salary basis rather than by the hour. That salary has to meet a minimum threshold set by the U.S. Department of Labor. And the actual work performed has to fall into a recognized exempt category, most commonly executive, administrative, or professional duties. Miss any one of those three, and the job is non-exempt by default, meaning overtime pay is owed regardless of the job title on the org chart.

As of the current federal rule, a salaried employee generally needs to earn at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year) to even be eligible for exempt status, on top of meeting the duties test. That threshold was raised substantially by a 2024 Department of Labor rule, but that rule was struck down by a federal court in November 2024, and the Department of Labor formally restored the original 2019 threshold through a May 2026 technical amendment. A separate, higher threshold of $107,432 a year applies to a narrower "highly compensated employee" exemption.

If your job genuinely meets the salary and duties tests for exempt status, you generally aren't owed FLSA overtime pay no matter how many hours you work in a week. Since the no tax on overtime deduction only applies to qualified overtime compensation under the FLSA, and an exempt employee typically has no FLSA overtime pay to begin with, there's usually nothing to deduct. This isn't a quirk of the deduction. It follows directly from the underlying overtime rule the deduction is built on top of.

A salaried job that doesn't meet all three exemption tests is non-exempt, and a non-exempt employee is owed overtime pay for hours worked past 40 in a week, the same as anyone paid hourly. This surprises people because "salaried" and "exempt" get used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but they aren't the same thing under the law. A salaried administrative assistant, for example, might not meet the duties test for the administrative exemption and would be entitled to overtime despite being paid a fixed salary.

The math works a little differently than it does for someone paid a straight hourly rate. A non-exempt salaried employee's regular hourly rate is generally found by dividing the weekly salary by the number of hours it's meant to cover, and overtime is then paid at 1.5 times that rate for hours past 40. Once that premium rate is worked out, it qualifies for the no tax on overtime deduction the same way any other overtime premium does. Seethe no tax on overtime calculatorand use your derived hourly rate in Tab B if this applies to you.

Your job title and the fact that you're on salary aren't enough on their own to answer this. A few things worth checking: does your pay stub show an hourly rate and overtime hours at all, even in a salaried role, which is a strong sign you're classified non-exempt. Does your offer letter or HR documentation state your classification directly. And does your actual day-to-day work genuinely involve independent judgment, managing other employees, or specialized professional expertise, since the duties test is judged on real responsibilities, not the job title.

If you're not sure, your payroll or HR department can confirm your classification directly, and that's the most reliable way to know for certain. If you find out you're non-exempt and have been working overtime, run your numbers throughthe calculatorto estimate what the deduction is worth to you.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. FLSA exemption rules involve fact-specific duties tests that can genuinely be close calls. Confirm your own classification with your employer or a qualified professional before assuming either way. Every calculator linked from this page runs entirely in your browser.