[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR541.302]

[Page 188-189]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 541_DEFINING AND DELIMITING THE EXEMPTIONS FOR EXECUTIVE, 
 
                    Subpart D_Professional Employees
 
Sec. 541.302  Creative professionals.

    (a) To qualify for the creative professional exemption, an 
employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring 
invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of 
artistic or creative endeavor as opposed to routine mental, manual, 
mechanical or physical work. The exemption does not apply to work which 
can be produced by a person with general manual or intellectual ability 
and training.
    (b) To qualify for exemption as a creative professional, the work 
performed must be ``in a recognized field of artistic or creative 
endeavor.'' This includes such fields as music, writing, acting and the 
graphic arts.

[[Page 189]]

    (c) The requirement of ``invention, imagination, originality or 
talent'' distinguishes the creative professions from work that primarily 
depends on intelligence, diligence and accuracy. The duties of employees 
vary widely, and exemption as a creative professional depends on the 
extent of the invention, imagination, originality or talent exercised by 
the employee. Determination of exempt creative professional status, 
therefore, must be made on a case-by-case basis. This requirement 
generally is met by actors, musicians, composers, conductors, and 
soloists; painters who at most are given the subject matter of their 
painting; cartoonists who are merely told the title or underlying 
concept of a cartoon and must rely on their own creative ability to 
express the concept; essayists, novelists, short-story writers and 
screen-play writers who choose their own subjects and hand in a finished 
piece of work to their employers (the majority of such persons are, of 
course, not employees but self-employed); and persons holding the more 
responsible writing positions in advertising agencies. This requirement 
generally is not met by a person who is employed as a copyist, as an 
``animator'' of motion-picture cartoons, or as a retoucher of 
photographs, since such work is not properly described as creative in 
character.
    (d) Journalists may satisfy the duties requirements for the creative 
professional exemption if their primary duty is work requiring 
invention, imagination, originality or talent, as opposed to work which 
depends primarily on intelligence, diligence and accuracy. Employees of 
newspapers, magazines, television and other media are not exempt 
creative professionals if they only collect, organize and record 
information that is routine or already public, or if they do not 
contribute a unique interpretation or analysis to a news product. Thus, 
for example, newspaper reporters who merely rewrite press releases or 
who write standard recounts of public information by gathering facts on 
routine community events are not exempt creative professionals. 
Reporters also do not qualify as exempt creative professionals if their 
work product is subject to substantial control by the employer. However, 
journalists may qualify as exempt creative professionals if their 
primary duty is performing on the air in radio, television or other 
electronic media; conducting investigative interviews; analyzing or 
interpreting public events; writing editorials, opinion columns or other 
commentary; or acting as a narrator or commentator.