Measuring Overtime Exemption Status: A Task-Based Approach

This paper introduces new measures of the overtime exemption status of individual tasks measured by O*NET. Task-based measures reveal that about 60 percent of salaried workers are in occupations in which either all or no O*NET tasks are exempt. While workers with higher earnings tend to be employed in occupations in which a larger share of tasks are exempt, there is substantial variation in exempt task shares across occupations at all levels of earnings. The task content of job ads shows a similar pattern. Incorporating task-based exemption measures into extensions of prior work reveals that workers in high-exemption occupations were more likely to transition out of salaried jobs affected by changes to state overtime rules, and managerial jobs just above the federal salary level test threshold have exempt task content similar to those just below it.