---
kind: "section"
citation: "5 C.F.R. § 551.207"
title: "5"
number: "551.207"
heading: "Professional exemption criteria."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/5/551.207"
---

# §551.207. Professional exemption criteria.


To qualify for the professional exemption, an employee's primary duty must be the performance of work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction or requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor. Learned professionals, creative professionals, and computer employees are described in §§ [551.208](/cfr/5/551.208.md), [551.209](/cfr/5/551.209.md), and [551.210](/cfr/5/551.210.md), respectively.


## Notes

### Source

Source: 72 FR 52765, Sept. 17, 2007, unless otherwise noted.

### Authority

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 5542(c); Sec. 4(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended by Pub. L. 93-259, 88 Stat. 55 (29 U.S.C. 204f). Link to an amendment published at 91 FR 48238, July 31, 2026.