Bona fide teachers generally are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s federal overtime requirements when their primary duty is teaching and they work as teachers in an educational establishment. Being employed by a school is not enough by itself. The exemption turns on the job’s actual duties and setting. [1]
What counts as teaching?
The regulation addresses teaching, tutoring, instructing, or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge. Covered examples include academic instruction and certain specialized teaching roles. A title such as “instructor” should be checked against what the person actually does, rather than treated as a conclusive classification. [1][2]
For example, someone whose main work is classroom instruction presents a different analysis from a school employee who primarily handles maintenance, transportation, or clerical tasks. Working in the same building does not give those employees the same overtime status.
The usual salary tests do not apply
The teacher exemption expressly excludes the ordinary salary requirements applicable to many other professional exemptions. A qualifying teacher is therefore not automatically entitled to overtime merely because pay is hourly, part time, or below a general white-collar salary threshold. Conversely, paying someone a salary does not turn a nonteaching job into an exempt teaching position. [1]
The Department of Labor’s professional-exemption fact sheet confirms the teaching-duty standard and the exception from salary and salary-basis requirements. General salary charts should not be used as the only test for teachers. [2]
Substitutes, aides, and mixed roles
Substitute teaching and combined duties require attention to the actual assignment. A substitute who genuinely teaches may present different facts from an aide mainly supervising or assisting without a primary teaching duty. Other exemptions may also need review, but they have their own tests.
Federal exemption does not prevent a contract, collective bargaining agreement, employer policy, or state law from providing additional compensation. Extra-duty pay also should not be confused with a federal entitlement to time-and-a-half for every hour beyond forty.
Records to review
- Actual daily duties and the primary purpose of the role.
- The nature of the educational establishment.
- Employment agreements and pay policies.
- Hours and assignments during the disputed period.
- Applicable state-law or contractual protections.
Related questions include when unpaid volunteering becomes employment and leave eligibility for remote employees. Wage exemptions and leave coverage are separate determinations.
Primary sources
Sources checked: October 31, 2026.