I'm a director of a non-profit agency in Vermont. A Board member tells me I cannot change our Program Director / Nurse's status to that of a salaried employee unless she is responsible for making policy. Just so happens she does, but I'm interested in knowing whether the Board member's claim is valid.

First of all, let's get our terminology straight. A salaried employee is one who is paid on a salaried basis. Both exempt and non-exempt employees can be paid on salary, as long as a non-exempt employee who is paid via salary also receives any overtime that is due them.

An EXEMPT employee is one who (in most cases) is paid via salary and who does not need to be paid overtime no matter how many hours they work.l

(sorry, but it drives me crazy when people try to make the words exempt and salaried as interchangeable. They're not.)

There is a certain validity to the Board member's claim, but that is not the ONLY factor that is required to make an employee exempt.

For more information, look here: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17a_overview.htm

and if you have additional questions, I'll be glad to try to help.