Part time hourly vs part time salary Maine

[NCCBoard]

I am on a board for a 501c3 in which the town pays the employees. It is a library situation. We recently hired a new director who is part time 32 hours a week. She has two part time librarians who report to her. I suggested to the Town Manager who the director reports to that she was actually working 55 to 60 hours and I was worried about the liability of this. Four days later she is suddenly part time salary. I have never heard of this. He said this could be done because 50% of her time is directing the two librarians. This does not constitute 50% of her job. Can anyone give me clarification on this?

[cbg]

Salaried and hourly are only pay methods and have little to no legal standing of their own - what matters is exempt and non-exempt. There is nothing whatsoever illegal about having a part time exempt employee as long as the job duties qualify as exempt and she still meets the floor salary of $455. I am not aware of any exempt classification where it is required that a full 50% of her job be spent directing other employees. However, we don't have enough information about what her duties actually are to say if she is correctly classified as exempt.

[DAW]

There are something like a 100 or exceptions to minimum wage, overtime or both in the federal FLSA law, but most of these exceptions are industry specific. And "non profit" is not an industry under FLSA. What is left is the so-called White Collar exceptions. Take a look at those, especially the Executive exception. These are the actual rules the government will use to determine whether or not a particular employee is exempt.

[Pattymd]

It is my recollection that the FLSA updates in 2004 basically eliminated the "50% rule" and made it "primary duties", at least for the executive exemption.

[Betty3]

Patty, I also have in my notes that the FLSA says your "primary duty/duties" must
meet the criteria for exempt status. (That's all I have though.)