29 CFR 541.400-402The FLSA Computer Employee Exemption: $684/Week or $27.63/Hour
The computer employee exemption is unique in the FLSA: it is the only white-collar exemption that can be satisfied by an hourly threshold rather than a salary. A software engineer paid $35/hour on a contract basis can be exempt - but an IT helpdesk technician paid $60k/year almost certainly is not.
$684/weekSalary threshold (same as EAP)
For salaried computer employees
$27.63/hourHourly threshold (unique to this exemption)
For hourly-paid computer employees
California state threshold: $58.85/hr (2026) OR $122,573/yr - significantly higher. Last verified April 2026.
Who qualifies: the four permitted primary duties
To qualify, the employee must be employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker in the computer field, and their primary duty must consist of one or more of the following activities (29 CFR 541.400):
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 design specifications.
Design, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems.
A combination of the aforementioned duties, the performance of which requires the same level of skills.
Who is NOT covered
The computer employee exemption is deliberately narrow. The following workers are explicitly excluded even if they work extensively with computers:
Manufacturing and repair workers
Employees engaged in manufacturing or repairing computers or other equipment. The exemption is for those who create and analyse systems, not those who build or fix hardware.
Helpdesk and tier-1 IT support
Employees whose primary duty is diagnosing and resolving routine user problems following defined procedures. Applying standard troubleshooting scripts is not 'systems analysis' under the regulation.
Data entry operators
Entering data into computer systems does not require the high-level skills the exemption targets. Even skilled data operators are not exempt on the basis of their data entry duties.
Employees who use software but are not in the computer field
An accountant who uses financial software, a civil engineer who uses CAD, or an analyst who uses Excel is not a computer employee under the FLSA, even if they are highly skilled with those tools.
Concrete examples
Backend engineer at a SaaS company, $120k salary, primary duty is designing and implementing application features.
Salary clearly exceeds $684/wk. Primary duty falls squarely within permitted duty B: development and modification of computer programs based on design specifications. Whether the engineer also qualifies under the learned professional exemption (CS degree) is largely academic - the computer employee exemption independently applies.
IT support technician, $55k salary, primary duty is password resets, hardware troubleshooting, ticket triage, and escalations.
Despite working with computers all day, the IT support technician's primary duty is applying established troubleshooting procedures from vendor manuals and knowledge bases. This is exactly the kind of work the regulation excludes. The $55k salary exceeds the $684/wk threshold, but the duties test fails. This employee is entitled to overtime for hours over 40.
Contract software developer paid $45/hour, working on a React application.
At $45/hour, the developer exceeds the $27.63/hour threshold. Primary duty is design and development of computer programs (permitted duty B). The computer employee exemption applies even though the employee is paid hourly - this is the only white-collar exemption that works on an hourly basis.
Hardware technician at a network company, $75k salary, primary duty is repairing and configuring Cisco routers.
Manufacturing and repairing computer hardware is explicitly excluded from the computer employee exemption under 29 CFR 541.401. The $75k salary easily clears the salary threshold, but the duties test fails. A hardware technician is not performing systems analysis or software engineering - they are performing repair and installation work.
Junior developer, $60k salary, primarily implementing features from detailed tickets and fixing bugs according to spec.
Even implementing features and fixing bugs from specified requirements falls within permitted duty B: testing and modification of computer systems or programs based on user or design specifications. The fact that the work is guided by detailed tickets does not disqualify the exemption - systems analysis and software development naturally involve working from specifications.
California state twist: a much higher bar
California has its own computer professional exemption with dramatically higher thresholds. For 2026, California computer professionals must earn at least $58.85/hour or $122,573/year in salary (updated annually based on the California Consumer Price Index).
California's duties test for the computer exemption also uses the more-than-50%-of-work-time standard rather than the federal primary duty test. And California requires the work to be predominantly intellectual and varied in character - not routinised or mechanical.
For a mid-level engineer earning $100k/year at a Bay Area company, this means: exempt under federal law, but NOT exempt under California law unless earnings exceed $122,573/year. The state rule applies to California workers regardless of where the employer is headquartered.
Educational content only. Employment classification is fact-specific; consult an employment attorney or your state labour department. Data verified April 2026.