Exempt vs Non-Exempt: Classifying Dental Staff for Overtime

The federal baseline is simple: a non-exempt employee must be paid at least one and one-half times their regular rate for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek.

An exemption lifts that obligation, and under the federal rules an employee is exempt as an executive, administrative or professional employee only if three tests are met — a duties test, a salary basis test (a predetermined, fixed salary) and a salary level test (a minimum amount).

A job title decides nothing on its own; the actual duties and the actual pay do.

The salary level is the quickest check.

The federal minimum salary for these exemptions is $684 per week — $1,368 biweekly, $1,482 semimonthly or $2,964 monthly — which is $35,568 a year for a full-year worker under DOL's 2019 rule.

A guaranteed salary below that line ends the exemption federally, whatever the title says.

If you budgeted around a higher threshold, recheck the source.

DOL's 2024 overtime rule would have raised the salary level, but it was vacated by the Eastern District of Texas on November 15, 2024 and again by the Northern District of Texas on December 30, 2024.

The Fifth Circuit dismissed the appeals of both vacatur orders on May 5 and May 7, 2026, so the vacatur is final, and on May 15, 2026 DOL removed the vacated text from the Code of Federal Regulations and republished the 2019 rule, $684 level included.

The 2024 amounts are vacated and not in force today.

The rules also define a separate highly compensated employee test: total annual compensation of at least $107,432, of which at least $684 per week must be paid on a salary or fee basis.

Both parts must be met — the annual total and the weekly salary-or-fee amount.

Salary basis is worth a close look.

It means a predetermined amount paid each pay period that is not reduced because of variations in the quality or quantity of the work performed — so docking an exempt employee's salary because the schedule was slow undercuts it, and DOL says an employer that has an actual practice of making improper deductions loses the exemption.

The rules still leave room to design pay: nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments, including commissions, paid at least annually can count toward up to 10 percent of the $684 level; an exempt employee can be paid by the hour, day or shift if the arrangement also guarantees at least the minimum weekly amount and bears a reasonable relationship to actual earnings; and extra pay such as a commission on top of the guaranteed salary does not cost the exemption.

And a baseline worth repeating: a salary does not settle anything by itself.

A non-exempt employee is owed overtime whether paid hourly or by salary, and a fixed salary for a workweek longer than 40 hours does not satisfy the FLSA.

Dentists are on their own track under the federal rules.

The regulation for the practice of law or medicine names dentists — doctors of dental medicine — among the physicians it covers, and any employee who holds a valid license to practice dentistry and is actually engaged in that practice is an exempt professional.

The unusual part is the money.

Under federal law the salary basis and salary level requirements do not apply to licensed dentists actually practicing dentistry, so an associate dentist can be exempt while paid hourly, per day, or on a percentage of production — pay structures that, without a guaranteed weekly salary, would end the exemption for each of the other roles on this page.

Read the limits correctly, though: the exemption follows the license and the actual practice of dentistry, and state law can and does differ.

California is the state that flips the answer.

Its professional exemption names dentistry among the licensed professions, and the Labor Commissioner's classification guide places dental offices under IWC Wage Order 4, the occupational wage order for professional, technical, clerical and similar occupations — the same guide uses a doctor's office as its example of a professional setting an occupational order covers because no industry order does.

Under Wage Order 4 and Labor Code Section 515, an exempt professional in California, including a licensed dentist practicing dentistry, must customarily exercise discretion and independent judgment and earn a monthly salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time (40-hour) employment.

There is no federal-style salary waiver for dentists in California.

With the statewide minimum wage at $16.90 per hour from January 1, 2026, that is a $70,304 annual salary minimum.

Washington follows the federal pattern: licensed dentists actually practicing dentistry are exempt professionals there, and the state's salary threshold does not apply to them.

Colorado's guidance says doctors, lawyers and teachers can be exempt on duties alone, without a minimum salary, as under federal law — but the guidance does not say whether that covers dentists, so confirm with Colorado's labor department or employment counsel before paying an associate on production with no salary.

Before you rely on the federal no-salary rule anywhere else, ask the same question: does your state's professional exemption require a salary?

One call to counsel is cheaper than a misclassification claim.

Hygienists sit under the learned professional exemption, which the federal rules keep narrow: it is limited to professions where specialized academic training is a standard prerequisite for entry, and the best evidence is the appropriate academic degree.

The regulation then addresses hygienists directly — those who have successfully completed four academic years of pre-professional and professional study in an accredited college or university approved by the ADA's Commission on Accreditation generally meet the duties requirements (29 CFR 541.301(e)(3)).

Two limits do the practical work.

First, the duties test opens the door only for the four-year path the rule names, so check the actual education against that standard rather than assuming it from a job history.

Second, even a hygienist who clears the duties test must still be paid on a salary basis of at least $684 a week — the no-salary rule that covers dentists does not cover hygienists.

Miss either part and the hygienist is non-exempt, owed time and one-half the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, whatever the pay structure.

This is the simple half of the classification map.

Dental assistants, front-desk staff, schedulers and billing coordinators are generally non-exempt, and the learned professional exemption is limited to professions where specialized academic training is a standard prerequisite for entry.

Treat these roles as non-exempt as a default and pay time and one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek.

A salary does not change the answer.

A salaried assistant or coordinator is still owed overtime, because a fixed salary for a workweek longer than 40 hours does not satisfy the FLSA.

The only route out is a genuine change in the job, not the title.

A billing lead or senior coordinator is exempt only if they truly meet the administrative or executive test — real discretion over significant matters, or real management of people — and are paid the salary the test requires.

Misjudging that is expensive: an employer that violates FLSA overtime rules owes the unpaid wages plus an equal additional amount as liquidated damages.

The office manager is the classification with the widest range on this list, because the title covers everything from a working front-desk lead to a true practice administrator.

Two federal tests can fit, and both use the same $684 weekly salary level.

The executive exemption fits a manager whose primary duty is managing the practice or a recognized department, who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees, and who has the authority to hire or fire — or whose recommendations on those decisions are given particular weight.

The administrative exemption fits office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the practice, performed with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

DOL's examples mark the line: human resources managers who formulate, interpret or implement employment policies generally meet the duties test, while personnel clerks who screen applicants against set minimum qualifications generally do not.

Primary duty means the main, most important duty.

Spending more than 50 percent of the time on exempt work generally satisfies it, but time alone is not the sole test.

And the regulations flag the exact situation a small office creates: a manager who is closely supervised and earns little more than the non-exempt employees generally does not satisfy the primary duty requirement, even when management tasks are part of the job.

If your office manager mostly covers the front desk, verifies insurance and works the schedule under your direction, the exemption is weak whatever the org chart says; if they genuinely run the business — hiring, discipline, policy, spending decisions — the tests are within reach.

For the pay side of the role — and the salary that has to clear the threshold for any exemption to hold — see what to pay an office manager.

California, Washington and Colorado set their own 2026 exempt salary minimums, and each figure this page verified sits above the federal level — so a salary that clears the state figure clears the federal level too.

Law-firm advisories also report a New York minimum, flagged below.

The state tests can add their own requirements, though; California's, for example, also requires an exempt professional to customarily exercise discretion and independent judgment.

The 2026 figures, with the federal floor for comparison:

Washington's threshold is scheduled in the state's rules at 2.25 times the minimum wage for a 40-hour workweek, regardless of employer size, and its 2026 minimum wage is $17.13 per hour.

Washington's carve-out for dentists mirrors federal law: licensed dentists actually practicing dentistry are exempt professionals, and the salary threshold does not apply to them.

Colorado pairs its $57,784 salary minimum with the same flexibility the federal rule allows: nondiscretionary bonuses, incentives and commissions paid at least annually can cover up to 10 percent of the required salary.

New York's 2026 minimum wage is $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $16.00 in the rest of the state.

The New York exempt salary figures in the table are reported by law-firm advisories; the state regulation behind them could not be pulled directly for this page, so confirm the current numbers with the New York State Department of Labor or employment counsel before you restructure pay around them.

The same advisories report that New York sets no separate salary level for the professional exemption.

Classification errors compound quietly.

An employer that violates FLSA minimum wage or overtime rules owes the unpaid wages plus an equal additional amount as liquidated damages — for a misclassified role, that is the back overtime plus the same amount again.

Classification is one decision in the wider hiring picture; the dental hiring hub collects the employer guides by topic, from screening to payroll.