No, overtime-exempt means that you work in specific exempt fields such as "management" or "software development" that are exempt from the overtime requirement.

No, overtime-exempt means that you work in specific exempt fields such as "management" or "software development" that are exempt from the overtime requirement. This applies whether you're salaried or hourly. We don't customarily sign "employment contracts" that stipulate the number of hours worked in these fields as in the US there is an expectation that a professional works as little or as much as needed to get the job done. The way this works in practice is that the company will keep adding tasks to your list until you stop getting things done as quickly. So if you work 80 hours a week they will gladly work you like that forever. So this law does absolutely nothing for salaried employees but may slightly improve the working conditions of wait staff and others provided their employer doesn't totally ignore the law, which happens a lot anyway WRT tips. I know this law sounds good in principle but like a lot of benefits it greatly helps hourly employees at the expense of hurting salaried employees in the middle class, and the upper class is as-usual totally unaffected by it because they can just afford whatever.