Computer Professional Exempt Status

Under federal law, to qualify for the computer professional exemption, an employee must be highly skilled and proficient in the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized information to computer system analysis, programming and software engineering. The employee must spend more than 50% of the work time actually engaging in exempt duties.

The qualifying duties in both federal and state law are:

• Application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software, or system functional specifications.
• Design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to, user or system design specifications, or
• Documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs related to, user or system design specifications, or
• Documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs related to the design of software or hardware for computer operating systems.

The computer professional exemption provided by both federal and state law does not apply to:

• Trainees or learners in entry-level positions and employees in computer-related occupations who have not attained the level of skill and expertise necessary to work independently and without close supervision.
• Employees engaged in the operation of computers or in the manufacture, repair, or maintenance of computer hardware and related equipment, and
• Engineers, drafters, machinists and other professionals whose work is highly dependent upon or facilitated by the use of computers and computer software programs and who are skilled in computer-aided design software, including CAD/CAM, but who are not in a computer systems analysis or programming occupation.
• Writers engaged in writing material, including box labels, product descriptions, documentation, promotional material, setup and installation instructions, and other similar written information, either for print or for onscreen media, or who write or provide content material intended to be read by customers, subscribers, or visitors to computer-related media such as the World Wide Web or CD-Roms.