California's Computer Professional Exemption, as codified in Cal. Lab. Code ยง 515.5 was enacted in September of 2000. Since then, the law has been revised several time to cover more and more computer programmers. The latest revision took effect September 30, 2008. This revision allows, for the first time, a fixed salary to be used to cover all overtime hours worked. Previously, as the number of hours worked increased, so did the salary required to meet the requirements of the exemptions. However, as of September 20, 2008, a flat salary of $75,000 per year will make a skilled computer programmer exempt from overtime. This rate is set to automatically index on January 1 of each year. As such, effective January 1, 2009, a fixed salary of $79,050 will suffice to make a skilled computer programmer exempt from overtime. The corresponding hourly rate is $37.94.
For a complete description of all the requirements for this exemption, please visit my California Computer Professional Exemption page.
