Dear Joyce: I telecommute three days a week. Often I have worked more than 40 hours in a week to get a job completed on time. I'm on salary, but I think I should be paid overtime. My employer disagrees, saying that I am an "exempt" employee. Is he right? -- S.H.

Dear S.H.: You've touched on a murky issue screaming for resolution: the need for updated clarification of compensation platforms for white-collar workers who have computers, will travel. Or telecommute. Or work online. All these technology-based work modes didn't exist when the federal government laid down the concept of overtime-pay entitlement based on job responsibilities and pay levels in the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. Until the Digital Age it was easy for employers to count the hours of people on their payroll. They weren't dealing with white-collar help operating at remote locations freely proceeding at their own pace.

FLSA is complex, full of exceptions, exemptions and expansions from revisions and case law. But here's a data bite:

Being classified as an FLSA "exempt" employee means you work for a salary and you can forget about extra and premium pay even if you regularly sweat 80 hours a week. It's not surprising that employers prefer the exempt classification because their payroll costs are fixed. The employer feels that if you're a slow worker, you should drag your feet on your own time. By contrast, a FLSA classification of "non-exempt" means your employer is required to pay you at a rate of not less than 1.5 times your regular hourly rate after you work 40 hours in a workweek. No surprise, unions and employees favor this category. Employers assume the time-based cost. And overtime money adds up.

In the old economy, exempt and non-exempt groupings were easily understood; they're conveniently summarized on the "Workforce" magazine site on their How to Classify Employees page. But in the new economy, classification and related issues, such as compensatory time off, grows thornier by the day.

Employers argue that technology, by creating a class of self-directed workers, has boosted the number of employees who qualify to be classified as exempt from overtime entitlement.

Employees counter with the argument that many companies try to pull a fast one by falsely labeling computer-related desk jobs as exempt just because employees call their own work hours.

The chief exemptions from overtime are executives with supervisory authority, professionals with substantial knowledge and education, such as doctors and lawyers and certain high-level administrative and outside-sales personnel. Most blue-collar and general-office workers are non-exempt.

Your employer's insistence that you are an exempt employee isn't the final word. You can request a ruling from the federal Department of Labor by calling your local DOL Wage and Hour Division office. Read about this option on their Web site at www.dol.gov. A tip: If your employer docks you for tardiness or absence, those deductions may invalidate your employer's claim that you are an exempt worker. In addition to FLSA, states have overtime-entitlement laws, too. In California, non-exempts must be paid overtime rates after an eight-hour day. Check with your state's labor department for more information.

As more people work online and away from the supervised workplace, debate about the need to update regulations governing overtime entitlement will grow louder from both management representatives and labor advocates. Bone up on current exempt and non-exempt matters expressed in easy-reading style by visiting the legal publisher at www.nolo.com.

E-mail career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at jlk@sunfeatures.com.

© 2000, Los Angeles Times Syndicate