I have, for 9.5 years, been an exempt employee. I consistently work 12 hour days - that has always been what it takes to get the job done. Recently, I was moved from exempt to non-exempt status. My salary meets the exempt requirement. My job description is to create (from concept to implementation) online applications. From what I have read from the Dept. of Labor, this may fall under either the Learned Professional exemption or Creative Professional Exemption. The level of programming that I am required to do is fairly complex and requires a great amount of creativity to execute. I know it sounds crazy, but I want to be returned to my exempt status because this job cannot be completed in 8 daily hours. Does anyone have good advice or should I shoot a call out to the Dept. of Labor? Thanks for your help!!

The DOL is not going to get involved here, because it is not a violation of law to treat an employee whose job duties qualify him/her as exempt, as a nonexempt employee. It's only a violation of the law if it is the reverse.

This is not a call you get to make; it's the employer's decision. Having said that however, if you're working that many hours and now they're going to be paying overtime pay, I'd be interested in figuring out how that will be to the company's advantage, unless your effective hourly rate is being lowered substantially, or you're taking a lot of time off in partial-day increments (has to do with "salary basis" of exempt employees).