Is an executive assistant considered exempt or non-exempt? We have two in the company that are exempt and two that are non-exempt. Should this be uniform throughout the entire company?

It is the job duties, not the job title, that determines whether an employee is exempt or non-exempt. I've seen executive assistant job descriptions that clearly fall into non-exempt, and others that just as clearly fall into exempt.

what is the difference between exempt vs. non-exempt? i thought non-exempt was considered an hourly employee and exempt was salaried. I have been a Purchasing Agent for 5 years and our accounting department keeps changing me from hourly to salary and now back to hourly. My job description/duties have not changed. Seems like they change it when they don't want to pay O.T and then when I'm short 1-2 hours a week then they change me back to hourly.

In the large majority of cases, a non-exempt employee is paid on an hourly basis and an exempt employee is paid on a salaried basis. But there are exceptions in both directions; there are a few exempt positions that can be paid as hourly, and it is not illegal to pay a non-exempt employee on a salaried basis as long as they also receive overtime pay when due.

The Federal government and the goverments of most states have determined that certain job categories are "exempt" from receiving overtime. It is NOT, as I said above, however, your job title that determines if you are exempt or not; it is your job duties. You cannot make a position exempt simply by paying that position a salary instead of hourly wages.

What your employer is doing is illegal. While they are not prohibited from making a legitimate change one way or the other (ANY position, up to and including the CEO, can be made non-exempt if the employer is willing to pay the overtime; as I said above, only certain job duties can be made exempt), having made that change they are required to stick to it. They can't go changing it back and forth in an effort to avoid overtime.

It's impossible to say from what you have posted whether you qualify as exempt or not, but you can certainly complain to the state DOL about an (almost certain) violation of the FLSA.

thank you for your response. since i notified our accounting department of my pregnancy and the fact that i will have to take time for doctor's appointments, they changed me from salary to hourly and not only are they docking me for dr. 's appt. they are docking me 45 min & 1 hour lunches that i do not take. we have always had a flex schedule where we can work through lunch to "make up time". every other salary employee has this flexibility , i have had it for 6 years and now that i am pregnant they have taken this away. seems like i have a case with the human rights commission because any other employee with medical conditions is not treated this way. they maintain their salary status and flexible work schedule and they are not docked for lunches when they work through them as make up time. let me know what you think.

If this is actually connected to your pregnancy, then yes, I would agree that you not only have a case to put to the state DOL, but also one to put to the state human rights commission and/or the EEOC.