Outside Sales | Employee Complaints
–Report Unpaid Overtime–
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) contains an exemption from the payment of both minimum wage and overtime pay to any employee employed as an Outside Sales Employee.
Outside Sales Employees sell their employer’s products, services, or facilities to customers away from their employer’s place(s) of business, either at the customer’s place of business or by selling door-to-door at the customer’s home. Sales made from the employer’s location (inside sales) do not qualify as outside sales. Similarly, work done by mail, telephone or the Internet do not qualify as outside sales unless such activities are in connection with sales made by personal contact.
(Some employees performing inside sales work in certain retail establishments may be exempt from the overtime pay protections as Commissioned Sales Employees.)
To qualify for the Outside Sales Employee exemption:
- The employee’s primary duty must be making sales, or obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer; and
- The employee must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business or other fixed site (e.g., satellite office, office in the employee’s home) for the purpose of selling the employer’s products, services or facilities.
Customarily and regularly means a frequency that must be greater than occasional but may be less than constant. Tasks performed customarily and regularly include work normally and recurrently performed every workweek; it does not include isolated or one-time tasks.
