You did not mention the hours that you work. If the consolidation of these jobs results in your working more than forty hours weekly, you should receive overtime pay. Even though you now work for two departments and two supervisors, all of your hours of work must be combined. The FLSA does not permit the employer to ignore your overtime hours or to pay for them at only straight time.

The primary difference in the scenario that you are describing has to do with the outcome of a misclassification; both employers are responsible for FLSA compliance. It is in the best interest of each employer to ensure that the classification of exemption is correct, or to make sure that all hours are compensated and that OT is properly paid.

Do they go by the same FLSA guidelines as regular employees or are the different guidelines that should be followed to classify these individuals as exempt vs. non-exempt?

541.301 “(e) (1) Registered or certified medical technologists. Registered
or certified medical technologists who have successfully completed
three academic years of pre-professional 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 generally meet the duties
requirements for the learned professional exemption.”

Even if there is doubt about whether the technology work is exempt, it would not cause you to be nonexempt unless your exemption classification is shaky to begin with. Please see the comments about “primary duty” in my February 17th post (above).

How much flexibility exists depends on just how solid the exemption classification is. If the employee just barely meets the primary duty test, the hours devoted to a side job will probably result in loss of exemption. If the employee not only meets the primary duty test, but (for example) 90% of his or her time is ordinarily devoted to exempt work, even working significant hours in the side job probably will have no effect on the exemption. Another consideration is that the primary duty rule probably applies over a representative period of time, not just a workweek, so one week with more hours than usual in nonexempt work is not likely to result in loss of exemption.

Richard, Florida has a MW law but I do not believe that it has an OT provision, or maybe it requires employers to follow the federal standards. You could nail that down by contacting the appropriate Florida agency. Most of the states in the South do not have OT standards that exceed the federal provisions. My comments are solely about FLSA (federal law).

The exemptions that are discussed in this thread are derived from FLSA Sections 13(a)(1) and 13(a)(17) – the “white collar” exemptions. Bus drivers do not qualify for any of those exemptions. If the “motor carrier” exemption applies, it does not matter whether the employee is full time or part time, or how the pay is computed (per trip, etc.) – those factors have no effect on application of the exemption.

Your reference to “field trips” indicates that you are asking about school bus drivers. They are generally subject to the FLSA MW and OT standards. Paying for field trips on a per trip basis is fine, but the employer is obligated to combine all hours and all earnings for the workweek, calculate the regular rate (can’t be less than MW), and – if the combined hours exceed 40, pay the half-time overtime premium for the OT hours (in addition to all regular wages).