Checking a salary against the FLSA white-collar exemption threshold looks like comparing one number to another. It is, once you have the right number -- but which number applies depends on the employee's work state, and in one state, on the exemption category too. A manual check that reaches for a single figure and applies it everywhere gets exactly the case that differs wrong.
| Step | Common mistake checking it by hand | What this checker does |
|---|---|---|
| Picking the right threshold for the state | Applying the federal $684/week figure to every employee, missing that California, Washington, Maine, Alaska, and New York each set a higher figure that controls instead for an employee working there. | Applies the federal figure or the applicable state figure, whichever is higher, based on the state you select. |
| New York's category-specific carve-out | Applying New York's higher regional figure to every exemption category, when it applies only to the executive and administrative exemptions -- a professional-exemption classification in New York is governed by the federal $684/week figure instead. | Applies New York's higher figure only to the executive and administrative categories, and the federal figure to the professional category, automatically. |
| State effective dates | Applying a state's higher 2026 figure before it actually takes effect -- Alaska's $1,120/week figure is not effective until July 1, 2026, unlike the other four states' January 1, 2026 dates. | States each figure's effective date alongside the result, so a check run before that date isn't silently overclaiming it. |
| Treating "meets the threshold" as "is exempt" | Stopping at the salary comparison and classifying the employee exempt on that basis alone. | States every time that the salary threshold is necessary, not sufficient -- the salary-basis and duties tests still apply and are not checked here. |
| Is anything I enter uploaded anywhere? | N/A | No. The checker runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to a server. |
This is the checker's own shipped "load an example" scenario -- open the checker and click it to see the same numbers.
| Employee | Applicable threshold | Meets it? |
|---|---|---|
| $900/week, professional exemption, NYC area | $684.00/week (federal -- New York sets no professional-specific figure) | Yes |
| $900/week, administrative exemption, NYC area | $1,275.00/week (New York's downstate figure) | No -- $375.00 short |
Same salary, same office. A manual check that learned "the New York figure is $1,275/week" from the first case and applied it to every category would have wrongly failed the professional employee, or one that learned "$900 clears the threshold here" from the professional case and applied it to the administrative employee would have wrongly passed them. Both mistakes run in this checker's worked example, in opposite directions, from the same starting fact.
No -- only in a state that has not set its own higher figure. Five states currently have: California, Washington, Maine, Alaska, and New York. An employee paid well above $684/week can still fail the applicable threshold if they work in one of those states and the state figure is higher, which is the single most common way a manual check that only knows the federal number gets the answer wrong.
No, and this is the detail most likely to be missed by hand. New York's higher regional figures ($1,275/week in NYC and Nassau/Suffolk/Westchester, $1,199.10/week elsewhere in the state) apply only to the executive and administrative exemptions. New York sets no separate threshold for the professional exemption, so the federal $684/week figure governs a professional-exemption classification even in New York -- while an executive or administrative employee at the identical salary and location is judged against the much higher state figure.
Because the applicable threshold depends on the exemption category, not just the state. A $900/week employee in the NYC area classified under the professional exemption meets the threshold -- the federal $684/week figure governs, since New York sets no professional-specific figure. A $900/week employee at the same company, same location, classified under the administrative exemption instead does not meet the threshold: New York's $1,275/week figure applies to that category, and $900 is $375 short.
No. California, Washington, Maine, and New York's 2026 figures are effective January 1, 2026, but Alaska's $1,120/week figure does not take effect until July 1, 2026 -- a manual check applied before that date should still use the federal $684/week figure for an Alaska employee, not the higher figure that has not taken effect yet.
No. The salary threshold is a necessary condition, never a sufficient one. The employee must also be paid on a true salary basis (not reducible for partial-day absences or variations in the quantity of work performed) and must actually perform exempt duties under the executive, administrative, or professional duties test. This tool checks only the salary-level half of the test.