Whether you’re a new employee or have been at UT for many years, the compensation team offers many services to support you. We also work with departmental HR contacts to process many different types of compensation and position transactions. Please call us at 865-974-6642 if you have any questions.
Compensation Practices and Philosophy
For specifics on how the university handles compensation, including compensation increases, visit the UT System HR’s page on Salary Increases, Incentives, and Bonuses.
Visit the UT System HR’s page on Compensation Philosophy for more information.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal law that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay eligibility, record-keeping, and child labor standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Employees covered by the Act are considered to be non-exempt workers and are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
Overtime-eligible employees must be compensated with overtime pay or compensatory time for all hours worked over 40 during an established seven-day work period. The established work period for most UT Knoxville employees is Monday–Sunday. The overtime rate is one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40. The Act provides that employees engaged in fire protection or law enforcement may be paid overtime on a work period basis of at least seven days to up to 28 days.
UT Knoxville Law Enforcement Officers are on a 14-day work period. Compensatory leave may be granted in lieu of pay and is earned at a rate of one and one-half hours for each overtime hour worked. Paid leave does not count towards hours worked when determining overtime. Eligible (non-exempt) employees may accrue up to 240 hours of compensatory leave (480 hours for eligible law enforcement officers).
More information can be found on the UT System HR’s FLSA page. There you’ll also find details on recent proposed changes and updates to FLSA.
Overtime Eligibility
Compensation determines whether a position is designated as exempt or non-exempt from the FLSA based upon criteria established by the US Department of Labor. A designation is made when new positions are established and when there are changes to existing position description questionnaires. In order for an exemption to apply, an employee’s specific job duties and salary must meet all the requirements of the Department of Labor’s regulations.
The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for employees employed as bona fide executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales professions, as defined by the Department of Labor. There may be situations where a position has been designated as exempt based on job duties but the employee’s salary does not meet the salary threshold; therefore, the employee will be designated as non-exempt and will be eligible for the overtime provisions of the FLSA.