NJ exempt: $684/week federal salary + duties test.
New Jersey does not have a state-specific exempt salary threshold — the federal FLSA $684/week ($35,568/year) controls. The duties test mirrors federal 29 CFR Part 541: executive, administrative, professional, computer, or outside sales primary duties. Misclassification carries elevated risk in NJ thanks to the Wage Theft Act: unpaid overtime back wages plus 200% liquidated damages plus mandatory attorney fees plus the 6-year statute of limitations stack into liability typically 4-7× the original underpayment.
FLSA Exempt Classification
Validates exempt classification against $684/week salary basis and duties test. Captures classification rationale at hire. Annual review enforced. Surfaces Wage Theft Act exposure on misclassification risk.
What those rules do at hire and at review.
The hero card configuration: Avoid on misclassification risk, Flag on annual review, Critical on Wage Theft Act exposure.
When a worker is classified exempt at a salary below $684/week, Teambridge surfaces an Avoid indicator. Classification will fail FLSA review even if duties test is met.
Each exempt worker is flagged for annual classification review on the hire anniversary. The duties test is re-validated against actual job content. Drift in duties → reclassification recommended.
Misclassified exempt workers expose the employer to all unpaid OT back wages × 3 (the 200% liquidated multiplier under the Wage Theft Act) plus attorney fees. Total exposure is typically 4-7× the original underpayment.
Deploy NJ exempt classification in your Teambridge.
Tell us about your New Jersey workforce. We'll spin up FLSA-compliant classification with salary basis enforcement, duties test documentation, annual review cycles, and Wage Theft Act exposure tracking — and 21 other NJ policies in a sandbox tenant.
Salary basis + duties test — both must be met.
FLSA exempt classification requires both a salary above the threshold AND primary duties matching one of the white-collar exemptions. Salary alone does not exempt; duties alone does not exempt.
Salary basis at federal floor
NJ does not have a state-specific exempt salary threshold (unlike Washington at 2.25× minimum wage or California at 2× minimum wage). The federal FLSA $684/week ($35,568/year) is the controlling minimum. Workers earning less than this — even if performing exempt duties — must be classified non-exempt and paid overtime. The DOL's attempted 2024 increase to $1,128/week was vacated by federal court in November 2024.
Duties test is the harder bar
29 CFR Part 541 defines five white-collar exemptions: executive (manage 2+ employees, hire/fire authority), administrative (office work + discretion and independent judgment), professional (advanced knowledge), computer (specific technical roles + $27.63/hr alternative), and outside sales (primary duty making sales away from employer's place of business). The 'primary duty' analysis is fact-specific and the most common source of misclassification.
Teambridge enforces salary basis and surfaces duties drift before Wage Theft Act exposure accrues.
Classification at hire is the cheap part — annual review against actual duties before the 6-year SOL window starts running is where most operators fail.
$684/wk threshold validated.
When a worker is classified exempt, the salary is validated against $684/week. Below the threshold → Avoid surface.
Exempt category + primary duties documented.
At classification, the exempt category and primary duty rationale are captured. Documentation is the first defense in audit or wage claim.
Duties re-validated each year.
Each hire anniversary, exempt workers are flagged for classification review. Captured primary duty is compared against actual recent job content.
Misclassification → liability calculation.
If reclassification occurs, Teambridge calculates the back-OT exposure × 3 (Wage Theft Act multiplier) plus attorney fees so the operator sees the full liability.
Still evaluating? Get a free New Jersey compliance audit.
Send us your existing New Jersey scheduling and pay configuration. Our compliance team returns a written audit within 5 business days — every New Jersey-specific exposure ranked by risk and back-pay liability.