1. Employment in the Church
Pacifica Synod
October 6, 2018

2. Presenter: Gerry Marecek
Retired HR Professional
Master of Science in HR from Chapman
Regional HR Manager for Fortune 200 Company
Supported manufacturing plants in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Arizona, Nevada, and California
Located in facility in Torrance as home base

3. Outline Job Classification Exempt Nonexempt Independent Contractor
Time-Keeping for Nonexempt

4. Fair Labor Standards Act
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Passed in 1938, it's a federal statute passed to protect workers from abuses that were occurring during the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression. It’s revised periodically by state or Federal actions.

5. Classification
Employees whose jobs are governed by the FLSA are either "exempt" or "nonexempt." Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay. Exempt employees are not. Most employees covered by the FLSA are nonexempt. These requirements are outlined in the FLSA Regulations. Common business usage refers to hourly and salaried positions, although salaried positions may be either exempt or nonexempt, depending upon the work done by the employee. It’s cleaner and easier to refer to positions as exempt or nonexempt.

6. Exempt Executive Administrative Professional
Highly Compensated (no need to discuss)

7. Executive Exemption
To qualify as an exempt executive, an employee must:
manage other workers as the primary job duty
direct the work of two or more full-time employees
have the authority to hire, fire, discipline, promote, and demote others or make recommendations about these decisions, and
Earn at least the applicable exempt salary of $43,680 in 2018 (based on $10.50 minimum wage) & $45,760 in 2019 (25 or fewer employees).

8. Administrative Exemption
An administrative employee generally must:
Primarily perform office or non-manual work directly for company management or administration
Primarily use his or her own discretion and judgment in work duties, and
Earn at least the applicable exempt salary of $43,680 in 2018 (based on $10.50 minimum wage) & $45,760 in 2019 (25 or fewer employees).

9. Professional Exemption
To qualify as an exempt professional, an employee must:
Perform work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a recognized creative field—such as music or
Perform work requiring advanced knowledge—work that is predominantly intellectual, requires a prolonged course of instruction, and requires the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, such as Teaching and
Earn the exempt minimum

10. Ministerial Exception Creation
Not created in the FLSA; created judicially and legislatively (Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964).
Recognized as constitutional under the First Amendment
This category relates primarily to labor law
A “ministerial exemption” carries tax implications beyond wage (e.g., social security offset) for ordained ministers only

11. Ministerial Exception Factors
Supreme Court found four factors EEOC v. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church:
Employee was formally commissioned or ordained as a Lutheran “minister”
She did perform “important religious functions” in addition to her teaching of lay subjects in the classroom
The fact that lay people taught the same classes she did was not “dispositive” in the decision
Her non-religious duties, however extensive, did not make a difference. Chief Justice Roberts noted that the Court was unsure whether any church employee would ever exclusively perform religious duties

12. Ministerial Exception Practice
Job descriptions should recognize the key factors and note the position as exempt
Actual job duties must be consistent with the job description and correlate to the key factors identified by the Supreme Court
Wage doesn’t have to meet the exempt level

13. Independent Contractor
Dynamex Ops. West, Inc. v. Superior Ct., the California Supreme Court held that a worker will be considered an employee of the “hiring entity” for purposes of the Wage Orders unless the “hiring entity” can establish all three of the following factors:
The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact
The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business
The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business

14. Dilemma: Dynamex v Lee
As the United States Supreme Court observed in Board v. Hearst Publications (1944) 322 U.S. 111, 121: “Few problems in the law have given greater variety of application and conflict in results than the cases arising in the borderland between what is clearly an employer-employee relationship and what is clearly one of independent, entrepreneurial dealing.”

15. Current Case Law
The Dynamex decision shows that most church positions will be filled by employees, rather than by independent contractors.
It’s difficult to find a position that meets all three of the California Supreme Court’s standards noted in Dynamex.

16. Nonexempt Time-Keeping and Pay
All time worked must be paid, whether at home, in the office, or at any location
Nonexempt employees cannot legally “donate” hours of work for any tasks that would be done as a part of their jobs

17. Required Meal Period Chart

18. Required Rest (Break) Period Chart

19. Questions?
If you need to follow-up on any topics, feel free to reach out to me