Research Wage And Hour Classification For New Job Role

---
name: research-wage-and-hour-classification-for-new-job-role
task_id: employment-labor/research-wage-and-hour-classification-for-new-job-role
description: Guides the analyst in producing a comprehensive wage-and-hour classification memorandum for a new job role, applying the applicable federal and state exemption tests and analyzing potential exposure in a procedural, jurisdiction-aware way.
activates_for: [planner, solver, checker]
---

# Skill: Research Wage and Hour Classification for New Job Role

## 1. Subject-matter triage
- Treat the assignment as a legal classification memo for a newly described role, not as a payroll calculation exercise.
- First determine whether the role is plausibly exempt under federal law, then test any stricter state standard, then check whether any alternative exemption theory could apply.
- If the role appears to span multiple locations, employers, or work arrangements, separate the analysis by jurisdiction and by worker population before reaching a conclusion.
- If the source set is thin on job duties, identify the missing facts explicitly and flag which facts are outcome-determinative.

## 2. Failure modes the skill is correcting
- Analyst applies a federal salary threshold without confirming the currently applicable standard and whether agency action or judicial rulings affect it.
- Analyst treats the federal duties test as dispositive and fails to test a stricter or different state exemption standard.
- Analyst concludes “nonexempt” or “exempt” without testing alternative exemption theories that the role’s duties may implicate.
- Analyst ignores state wage-and-hour obligations that apply regardless of exempt status, including notice, pay-frequency, scheduling, or recordkeeping rules.
- Analyst states an exposure view without tying it to the relevant limitation period, damages multipliers, and any willfulness or good-faith considerations.
- Analyst gives a bottom-line conclusion without naming the controlling statute, regulation, or case authority supporting the rule applied.

## 3. Legal frameworks / domain conventions that apply
- Federal exemption analysis must identify the applicable exemption category, the salary-basis requirement if any, the salary-level requirement if any, and the duties test under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and implementing regulations in 29 C.F.R. Part 541.
- The federal salary threshold must be confirmed as current at the time of analysis, with attention to any applicable rulemaking, injunction, vacatur, or other judicial development affecting the standard.
- State exemption analysis must be performed separately where state law imposes a different salary threshold, different duties test, or a stricter administrative standard than federal law.
- If multiple states are implicated, each state’s wage-and-hour exemption rule must be treated as an independent legal layer rather than assumed to track federal law.
- Alternative exemption analysis must consider any other exemption category plausibly implicated by the role, including exemption theories tied to the specific nature of the work rather than the job title.
- State wage laws may impose additional obligations unrelated to exempt status, and those obligations should be identified by location and described only to the extent supported by the source set and controlling authority.
- Exposure analysis should address back pay, liquidated damages under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), the ordinary and willful limitation periods under 29 U.S.C. § 255(a), and the relevance of good faith under 29 U.S.C. § 260.
- When relying on a legal proposition, cite the controlling authority by name and section, regulation, or case rather than stating conclusions in the abstract.

## 4. Analytical scaffolds
- Start with a short executive conclusion that states the likely classification and the key reasons, while preserving any meaningful jurisdictional caveat.
- Build the federal analysis in rule-to-fact form: identify the exemption, state the governing authority, map the salary/basis requirement if relevant, then map each duties element to the role description.
- For duties analysis, separate the functional nature of the work from the level of discretion, independent judgment, supervision, and any time-allocation features the exemption turns on.
- Where the role description is ambiguous, distinguish between facts that support exemption and facts that cut against it; do not collapse both into a single neutral statement.
- If a state adds a stricter exemption test, repeat the rule-to-fact mapping under that state standard and state whether the state rule is more protective than federal law.
- If the role may fit more than one exemption theory, analyze each theory in a separate subsection and resolve them explicitly rather than using one theory as a placeholder for another.
- For each potentially applicable state-law obligation, identify the governing source, the operational effect on the role, and whether the obligation applies regardless of exempt status.
- Exposure analysis should be framed as a range or scenario-based estimate when source facts are incomplete, with the assumptions made explicit and tied to the source record.
- Any exposure discussion should connect the legal risk to operational consequences such as reclassification, wage adjustment, recordkeeping, audit posture, or litigation posture.
- If the facts indicate prior notice of a classification issue, consider whether later noncompliance could be argued as willful and whether that changes the exposure horizon.
- End with concrete corrective steps that address classification risk, job-description drafting, salary practices, recordkeeping, and rollout timing as appropriate.

## 5. Vertical / structural / temporal relationships
- If more than one jurisdiction, worksite, or employee cohort is in scope, enumerate the full set first and then analyze each item separately.
- If the role has changed over time or the employer has revised compensation or duties, analyze the relevant periods separately and avoid blending different legal standards into one conclusion.
- If a source document includes prior advice, audit materials, or earlier classification decisions, treat those as relevant to willfulness, good faith, and transition planning.
- If the analysis depends on a threshold that varies with time, identify the governing date and do not mix historical and current standards in the same calculation or conclusion.
- If the role is part of a broader job family, note whether classification should be assessed role-by-role or by cohort, and isolate any outlier duties that may alter the result.

## 6. Output structure conventions
- Format the work as an in-house legal memorandum with a concise executive summary at the top.
- Organize the body by jurisdictional layer and exemption theory, using clear headings for federal analysis, state analysis, alternative exemption theories, exposure, and corrective actions.
- Where multiple jurisdictions or periods are in scope, present a separate subanalysis for each rather than a blended narrative.
- Include an exposure table that separates back pay, liquidated damages, state penalties or additions if applicable, and total estimated exposure, with assumptions stated adjacent to the table.
- State the controlling authority for each legal conclusion in-line or in a footnote-style citation format consistent with a legal memo.
- End with a Recommended Actions section that uses imperative verbs, identifies the responsible internal role, and ties each action to a timing anchor or implementation milestone.
- Keep the memo outcome-oriented: every issue discussed should close with the legal rule, the fact-specific application, and the downstream consequence for the employer.