Employment compliance

This is the area where a well-intentioned decision made quickly costs the most later, because the mistakes are cheap to make, invisible for years, and expensive per-employee once found.

This structures the questions and the common failure patterns. Employment law varies by country, state and locality, changes often, and turns on specific facts — get a qualified employment adviser before acting on a classification, a termination, or a policy that applies to everyone.

Classification is decided by the work, not by the title or the agreement

Exempt versus non-exempt determines whether someone is owed overtime. It turns on what the person actually does day to day and on a salary threshold, not on being salaried, having a senior title, or preferring it that way. A misclassified role accrues unpaid overtime quietly and for everyone in it.