Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters, and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing, and development.

Still, here at Miletti Law®, we feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel accessible at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, it only seemed right to introduce one of the many upcoming series in which we introduce a variety of topics that looks to educate and deliver in a manner that only Miletti Law® can. To that end, this blog is Part VI of our ongoing series on “Life Sciences Industry Guide for Labor and Employment,” in which we review the basics and have an overview of what is encompassed as part of the life sciences industry. In Part V of the series and our blog titled “How to Handle Whistleblower Claims in the Life Sciences Industry,” we mentioned that the life sciences industry is highly regulated; thus, any potential violation of regulations and laws could lead to legal actions against the employer, and that it is not possible to entirely do away with such claims. We added that, however, in an attempt to avoid whistleblower claims, employers within the life sciences should adopt and implement several strategies. Some of these strategies include but are not limited to (1) documenting the response an employer gives following reports of noncompliance, (2) requiring managers to certify compliance, (3) requiring employees to report noncompliance, (4) mandating training on compliance for employees, (4) creating a compliance program for employees, and (5) conducting client-attorney privileged audits.

As a continuation of our discussion, this blog is titled “Hour & Wage Exemption Classification in Life Sciences Industry” and is an overview of the issue of hour and wage exemption that should be considered by counsels when representing employers within the life sciences industry.

Hour & Wage Exemption Classification in Life Sciences Industry

In the life sciences industry, hour and wage issues are regulated pursuant to 29 USC §§ 201–219 under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and several related wage orders and state statutes. Perhaps, for the purposes of recordkeeping, overtime, and meeting the minimum wage, the proper classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt is the most significant hour and wage challenge within this industry. Generally, employers are expected to assume that their employees are non-exempt and, thus, protected under the provisions of the FLSA, wage orders, and/or other state statutes.

Essentially, employers within this industry are expected to (1) maintain an accurate account of all hours worked for at least a 2 to 3-year period or longer, (2) pay overtime of one-and-a-half times the regular hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 per week, and (3) pay at least a minimum hourly rate for each hour worked. However, while these provisions vary from state to state and depend on the state in which an employer operates, local and state laws applicable to the payment of overtime, minimum wages, and the exemption status significantly vary.

This goes without saying that before determining the compensations for their employees, employers within the life sciences industry and their counsels must familiarize themselves with local and states laws governing the hour and wage exemptions. Furthermore, the compliance of employees with the most restrictive requirements is paramount.

However, no record of hours worked is required, and no overtime pay should be given to employees classified as exempt by their employers. Nonetheless, for such employees to be correctly classified as exempt, employers are required to pay them at a certain minimum salary threshold and on a salary basis, as well as ensure that their jobs meet specific criteria.

In Part VII of this series and our blog titled “Proper Classification of Exempt Employees in the Life Sciences,” we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on the characteristics and features of what entails properly classified exempt employees in the life sciences industry.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.