[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR541.301]

[Page 209-211]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 541_DEFINING AND DELIMITING THE TERMS ``ANY EMPLOYEE EMPLOYED IN A 
 
                        Subpart B_Interpretations
 
Sec. 541.301  Learned professions.

    (a) The ``learned'' professions are described in Sec. 541.3(a)(1) 
as those requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science 
or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized 
intellectual instruction and study as distinguished from a general 
academic education and from an apprenticeship and from training in the 
performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes.
    (b) The first element in the requirement is that the knowledge be of 
an advanced type. Thus, generally speaking, it must be knowledge which 
cannot be attained at the high school level.
    (c) Second, it must be knowledge in a field of science or learning. 
This serves to distinguish the professions from the mechanical arts 
where in some instances the knowledge is of a fairly advanced type, but 
not in a field of science or learning.
    (d) The requisite knowledge, in the third place, must be customarily 
acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction 
and study. Here it should be noted that the word ``customarily'' has 
been used to meet a

[[Page 210]]

specific problem occurring in many industries. As is well known, even in 
the classical profession of law, there are still a few practitioners who 
have gained their knowledge by home study and experience. 
Characteristically, the members of the profession are graduates of law 
schools, but some few of their fellow professionals whose status is 
equal to theirs, whose attainments are the same, and whose word is the 
same did not enjoy that opportunity. Such persons are not barred from 
the exemption. The word ``customarily'' implies that in the vast 
majority of cases the specific academic training is a prerequisite for 
entrance into the profession. It makes the exemption available to the 
occasional lawyer who has not gone to law school, or the occasional 
chemist who is not the possessor of a degree in chemistry, etc., but it 
does not include the members of such quasi-professions as journalism in 
which the bulk of the employees have acquired their skill by experience 
rather than by any formal specialized training. It should be noted also 
that many employees in these quasi-professions may qualify for exemption 
under other sections of the regulations in subpart A of this part or 
under the alternative paragraph of the ``professional'' definition 
applicable to the artistic fields.
    (e)(1) Generally speaking the professions which meet the requirement 
for a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study 
include law, medicine, nursing, accounting, actuarial computation, 
engineering, architecture, teaching, various types of physical, 
chemical, and biological sciences, including pharmacy and registered or 
certified medical technology and so forth. The typical symbol of the 
professional training and the best prima facie evidence of its 
possession is, of course, the appropriate academic degree, and in these 
professions an advanced academic degree is a standard (if not universal) 
prequisite. In the case of registered (or certified) medical 
technologists, successful completion of 3 academic years of 
preprofessional study in an accredited college or university plus a 
fourth year of professional course work in a school of medical 
technology approved by the Council of Medical Education of the American 
Medical Association will be recognized as a prolonged course of 
specialized intellectual instruction and study. Registered nurses have 
traditionally been recognized as professional employees by the Division 
in its enforcement of the act. Although, in some cases, the course of 
study has become shortened (but more concentrated), nurses who are 
registered by the appropriate State examining board will continue to be 
recognized as having met the requirement of Sec. 541.3(a)(1) of the 
regulations.
    (2) The areas in which professional exemptions may be available are 
expanding. As knowledge is developed, academic training is broadened, 
degrees are offered in new and diverse fields, specialties are created 
and the true specialist, so trained, who is given new and greater 
responsibilities, comes closer to meeting the tests. However, just as an 
excellent legal stenographer is not a lawyer, these technical 
specialists must be more than highly skilled technicians. Many employees 
in industry rise to executive or administrative positions by their 
natural ability and good commonsense, combined with long experience with 
a company, without the aid of a college education or degree in any area. 
A college education would perhaps give an executive or administrator a 
more cultured and polished approach but the necessary know-how for doing 
the executive job would depend upon the person's own inherent talent. 
The professional person, on the other hand, attains his status after a 
prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study.
    (f) Many accountants are exempt as professional employees 
(regardless of whether they are employed by public accounting firms or 
by other types of enterprises). (Some accountants may qualify for 
exemption as bona fide administrative employees.) However, exemption of 
accountants, as in the case of other occupational groups (see Sec. 
541.308), must be determined on the basis of the individual employee's 
duties and the other criteria in the regulations. It has been the 
Divisions' experience that certified public accountants who meet the 
salary requirement of the regulations will, except in unusual cases, 
meet the requirements of

[[Page 211]]

the professional exemption since they meet the tests contained in Sec. 
541.3. Similarly, accountants who are not certified public accountants 
may also be exempt as professional employees if they actually perform 
work which requires the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment 
and otherwise meet the tests prescribed in the definition of 
``professional'' employee. Accounting clerks, junior accountants, and 
other accountants, on the other hand, normally perform a great deal of 
routine work which is not an essential part of and necessarily incident 
to any professional work which they may do. Where these facts are found 
such accountants are not exempt. The title ``Junior Accountant,'' 
however, is not determinative of failure to qualify for exemption any 
more than the title ``Senior Accountant'' would necessarily imply that 
the employee is exempt.
    (g)(1) A requisite for exemption as a teacher is the condition that 
the employee is ``employed and engaged'' in this activity as a teacher 
in the school system, or educational establishment or institution by 
which he is employed.
    (2) ``Employed and engaged as a teacher'' denotes employment and 
engagement in the named specific occupational category as a requisite 
for exemption. Teaching consists of the activities of teaching, 
tutoring, instructing, lecturing, and the like in the activity of 
imparting knowledge. Teaching personnel may include the following 
(although not necessarily limited to): Regular academic teachers' 
teachers of kindergarten or nursery school pupils or of gifted or 
handicapped children; teachers of skilled and semiskilled trades and 
occupations; teachers engaged in automobile driving instruction; 
aircraft flight instructors; home economics teachers; and vocal or 
instrumental music instructors. Those faculty members who are engaged as 
teachers but also spend a considerable amount of their time in 
extracurricular activities such as coaching athletic teams or acting as 
moderators or advisers in such areas as drama, forensics, or journalism 
are engaged in teaching. Such activities are a recognized part of the 
school's responsibility in contributing to the educational development 
of the student.
    (3) Within the public schools of all the States, certificates, 
whether conditional or unconditional, have become a uniform requirement 
for employment as a teacher at the elementary and secondary levels. The 
possession of an elementary or secondary teacher's certificate provide a 
uniform means of identifying the individuals contemplated as being 
within the scope of the exemption provided by the statutory language and 
defined in Sec. 541.3(a)(3) with respect to all teachers employed in 
public schools and those private schools who possess State certificates. 
However, the private schools of all the States are not uniform in 
requiring a certificate for employment as an elementary or secondary 
school teacher and teacher's certificates are not generally necessary 
for employment as a teacher in institutions of higher education or other 
educational establishments which rely on other qualification standards. 
Therefore, a teacher who is not certified but is engaged in teaching in 
such a school may be considered for exemption provided that such teacher 
is employed as a teacher by the employing school or school system and 
satisfies the other requirements of Sec. 541.3.
    (4) Whether certification is conditional or unconditional will not 
affect the determination as to employment within the scope of the 
exemption contemplated by this section. There is no standard terminology 
within the States referring to the different kinds of certificates. The 
meanings of such labels as permanent, standard, provisional, temporary, 
emergency, professional, highest standard, limited, and unlimited vary 
widely. For the purpose of this section, the terminology affixed by the 
particular State in designating the certificates does not affect the 
determination of the exempt status of the individual.

[38 FR 11390, May 7, 1973. Redesignated and amended at 57 FR 46744, Oct. 
9, 1992.]