such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, ironworkers, operating engineers, laborers, and similar workers—are generally entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA regardless of how highly they are paid. Police, firefighters, paramedics, and other first responders The white-collar exemptions also do not apply to most first responders, including police officers, detectives, sheriffs and deputies, state troopers, correctional officers, probation and parole officers, park rangers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and similar personnel who perform law enforcement, fire protection, or emergency response duties. These workers are normally entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections, regardless of rank or pay level. Interaction with other laws and collective bargaining agreements The FLSA sets minimum standards that employers may not waive or reduce. Employers must comply with any federal, state, or local laws that provide a higher minimum wage, a shorter maximum workweek, or more generous overtime rules. Employers may, voluntarily or through collective bargaining agreements, provide wages and benefits above FLSA minimums. Collective bargaining agreements cannot waive or contract around FLSA protections, but nothing in the FLSA or exemption regulations relieves employers of more generous contractual obligations they have agreed to in a union contract. Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA) exemptions Like the FLSA, the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA), Minn. Stat. Chapter. 177, contains exemptions from its minimum wage and overtime provisions. Employers must comply with both federal and state law: when both apply, the more protective standard (for example, higher state minimum wage or broader state overtime coverage) governs. The MFLSA includes exemptions (some full, some overtime-only) for more than 20 categories of
workers, including, for example: • Certain nonprofit volunteers. • Elected officials. • Police and firefighters (for some provisions).
• Seasonal carnival, fair, and ski facility workers (overtime exemptions in limited circumstances). • Certain clergy in schools, hospitals, or nonprofits operated by a church or religious order. • Certain agricultural workers (in limited situations, often when paid on a salary basis). • Certain outside salespersons. • Certain executive, administrative, and professional employees.
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