Don't Waste the Chaos
Don't Waste the Chaos is a weekly podcast for small business owners and HR professionals who want practical, no-nonsense people strategy.
Host Kerri M. Roberts is an HR strategist, consultant, and founder of Salt & Light Advisors with 20+ years of experience turning reactive HR into proactive systems.
Each Tuesday, she breaks down hiring, onboarding, compliance, culture, and leadership - the kind of strategy that typically costs thousands in consulting, delivered in under 40 minutes.
If you're managing people and want to do it better, this show is for you.
New episode every Tuesday.
Learn more about the show and Kerri at www.kerrimroberts.com.
Don't Waste the Chaos
Salary Doesn't Mean Exempt: Employee Classification & Pay Equity for Small Business | HR Systems Series Ep. 5
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Are your salaried employees actually classified correctly under federal law — or are you sitting on overtime liability without knowing it? Most small business owners don't realize there's a three-part exemption test under the Fair Labor Standards Act that every salaried role has to pass. In Episode 5 of the 13 HR Foundations series, Kerri Roberts walks through classification, pay equity, and how to build a compensation structure that holds up in an audit.
In this episode, you'll learn:
1. The three-part FLSA exemption test every salaried employee has to pass (and why "salaried" alone doesn't make someone exempt)
2. The four most common classification mistakes Kerri sees in HR audits — and how to spot them in your own business
3. Why pay equity is NOT the same conversation as DEI, and what the Equal Pay Act and Title VII actually require
4. How to build a real compensation structure with three components: benchmark, range, and philosophy
5. The three audit questions to ask about every employee on your team this week
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Why I've never seen a company get this right
02:24 Where you are in the 13 HR Foundations series
04:46 Most owners don't realize they have classifications
06:55 The 3-part FLSA exemption test
09:15 Common classification mistakes I see in audits
12:36 What pay equity actually is (and isn't)
17:18 Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and pattern risk
21:54 Building a comp structure: benchmark, range, philosophy
25:21 The arbitrary raise problem
27:43 What to say when an employee asks for more money
32:26 3 audit questions for every employee on your team
34:50 How to get help
Not sure where your classification or comp gaps are? Take the free HR Audit and see exactly where you stand in 5 minutes: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit
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Resources to keep building:
🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit
🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast
📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh
✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
- HR Foundations online course → saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations
- The HR Easy Button (Book One) → https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh
- Department of Labor / FLSA exemption tests → dol.gov
Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact
Full show notes + transcript:
👉 https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/episode-5-salary-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means
