TL;DR: Federal minimum wage for salary (exempt) jobs is $684/wk or $35,568/yr.
Saw a comment that inspired me to make this post since I think it isn’t so widely known. (USA-based info)
The FLSA mandates that jobs pay minimum wage and OT after 40 hrs worked. By default jobs are not exempt from this law (non-exempt), but if certain criteria are met, employers can get exemptions from this rule on a position-by-position basis. These are exempt positions, but we usually refer to them as SALARY roles since pay isn’t dependent on hours worked.
However, paying salary without OT would be illegal without qualifying for the exemption. In short, there are certain criteria that must be met for a position to be exempt from the OT laws. Some of them are subjective or open to interpretation, but one critical part is not: exempt roles MUST pay a minimum of $684/week or $35,568 per year. That’s from the federal level, but some states have even higher minimums in place.
DOL page explaining this better than I can here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17g-overtime-salary
So, what to do about it if you think your employer is stealing from you by ignoring these laws?
-Check your paperwork and/or payroll website/paystubs and find out if your role is listed as exempt or non-exempt.
-If non-exempt, they are required to pay OT for more than 40 hrs in a week which means someone needs to be tracking those hours worked.
-If exempt, are you earning $35,568/yr? If not, your position cannot actually be exempt from the OT law. Your state laws might increase that minimum, but they cannot decrease it.
I’m not an expert, and I know that some professions fall into other categories (law, medicine, and teachers for some unknown reason. Check the link I posted, but I bet there are plenty of employers that take advantage of these lesser-known requirements either to avoid paying OT or to under-pay salaried workers.
Hopefully some commenters can add more details. On mobile so clarity may have been hindered by brevity.