Exemption Misclassification Cases

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and under many states’ laws, an employee who works more than 40 hours a week is, as a general proposition, entitled to time and a half overtime. This is true unless the person is an “exempt” employee and fits within one of the statute’s exemptions. A person is not exempt simply because they are given a title of some kind of “manager” or “supervisor” and told they were expected to do managerial work. It is what the employee actually does that matters. And it does not matter if an employee was told that they were paid by salary and not entitled to overtime. The laws exist to examine what is actually done by the worker, not what they were told.

There are exemptions for “executive” positions, “administrative” positions, and “professional” positions, among others. The basic thrust of the various exemptions is to exempt from the overtime requirements those individuals with meaningful roles in the direction or management of the company. In recent years, either through lack of knowledge or a willful desire to save money, many companies have disregarded the dictates of the law, required their workers to work in excess of 40 hours and not paid overtime. Workers will be given titles that sound significant – e.g., “Assistant Store Manager,” “Sales Manager,” “Exemption Analyst” – but whose actual jobs do not meet the criteria for exemption under the statute.

How Might I Know If I’ve Not Been Paid Properly?

Even if you were paid on a salary basis and told you were not entitled to overtime, you may have a claim. The following is just some of the factors to consider in analyzing a “misclassification” case:

• Quite often employees are given titles such as assistant store manager, assistant managers, shift supervisor, assistant supervisor, officer, claims representative, that may sound as if they are exempt employees but whose work does not meet the legal requirements.
• Workers worked more than 40 hours a week and received the same amount of wages per week, regardless of the amount of hours worked
• Workers spent most of the time doing non-managerial work such as stacking shelves, working with customers, handling a cash register, preparing food, unloading trucks or the like
• Worker’s job largely was to follow standard, company-wide policies and procedures and basically “minded” a store or location rather than “managed” it.
• The worker had
  • Little to no authority to hire or fire employees
  • Little to no authority to establish salaries
  • Little to no authority to deviate from company policies
  • Not permitted to make relatively important decisions about how to do his job without direct supervision or approval from supervisors
  • Does (or did) not regularly supervise two or more employees

Cases in this area generally are brought as collective cases or class actions. KL attorneys have successfully obtained certifications on behalf of tens of thousands of employees against numerous companies. We have also obtained well over a hundred million dollars of settlements for thousands of such workers, including a $42 million settlement against Staples, a $32 million settlement against CVS, a $20.9 million settlement against Rite Aid, a $16.5 million settlement against Bob Evans, a $9.2 million settlement against BJ’s Wholesale Warehouse Club, a $4.9 million settlement against Hewitt, Inc., among many others.

Our attorneys are available to review potential claims in this area of the law at no charge to you. If you believe you may have a claim, click here to send us your information.