Agency Payroll: Hourly vs Salaried, Does It Matter? | BEGl (2026)

Who in a marketing agency can be salaried and exempt

Copywriters, designers and other creative staff can be exempt creative professionals only if paid a salary of at least $684 per week and their primary duty requires invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized artistic or creative field. Work that mainly depends on intelligence, diligence and accuracy does not qualify, and the test is applied case by case.

Account managers may fall under the administrative exemption only if salaried at the standard level, performing office work directly related to management or general business operations of the employer or its clients, such as advertising, marketing or public relations, and exercising discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

The salary math for marketing agencies

The standard salary level is $684 a week, $35,568 a year. BLS puts the May 2025 national median for market research analysts and marketing specialists at $78,760, which is $1,515 a week, above the floor, so for that role the duties test is the whole question. Paying a salary to a non-exempt employee is legal; it just does not remove overtime, which is then computed on the salary divided by hours actually worked each week.

What changes when a role moves between the two

Moving account managers and copywriters from hourly to salaried changes the pay code, the timekeeping rule and the overtime treatment at once. A salaried non-exempt employee still needs hours recorded every week, and a salaried exempt one needs the exemption documented against the rule above, because in an audit the burden of proving the exemption sits with the employer.