At the suggestion of a colleague, I have been reading up on labor laws (how exciting) and I’m wondering if I need to restructure the way my IT staff gets paid. Are computer technicians exempt employeees? I see that there is a specific exemption for computer professionals, but I also ran across a website for a law firm that indicates that IT staff should be paid overtime. (http://www.lieffcabraser.com/itovertime.htm)
Is it different if my business does IT work vs. the IT staff inside a company?
Great question. Depending on the circumstances this could be a legal question and/or an accounting question. If your CPA does not know the answer you can always call the MSPAlliance Legal Hotline for answers to these types of questions.
Our understanding is that IT Staff for client site engineers is exempt. THey do not get paid overtime and they are on a flat salary for us because it does not make sense for us to reward billable hour input against flat fee billing.
Our support center is a differnt story. This area is grey. We have a remote support center. I have been told by our HR firm that these employees are exempt as well. BUT- I have been told form other firms using a help desk in other industries that these employees are not-exempt and should get overtime. I would urge you to tlak to your outsourced HR company if you have one and get a verdict in writing.
FYI, my wife’s company, HRP, is rolling out a self-help web resource for HR (currently in beta testing), as well as flat-rate HR help desk (I think it is only $1300/YR or something for the full service product, but don’t quote me on that).