For workers in many industries, a promotion to a managerial position can lead to benefits and a salary, as well as a more predictable schedule. The promotion may be the culmination of many years of hard work. Professionals may be excited about their new benefits and higher, salary pay. However, those paid on a salary basis often end up working overtime hours without extra compensation. They may ultimately find that they earn less per hour after the move to salary pay than they did before because of overtime demands.
Managers and others with reasonable salaries are typically exempt from overtime pay obligations as established by California state law and federal regulations. Businesses sometimes abuse the ability to classify workers as managers who are exempt from pay requirements.
They may largely treat these employees as part of the team that they oversee instead of truly moving them into a new position with unique job functions. The breakdown of job responsibilities in some cases may mean that a professional is actually misclassified as an exempt employee.
Managers should perform different functions than their teams
Managers oversee scheduling matters and handle other aspects of business management that non-exempt hourly workers typically do not address. They may need to work overtime to complete all of the various responses related to employee scheduling and other aspects of management, and they usually do not receive extra pay for that additional work.
Managers are typically exempt from overtime pay requirements so long as they spend 50% or more of their time performing tasks that differ from the standard job responsibilities imposed on the hourly workers at the company. If a manager spends much of their time cleaning, assisting customers and otherwise performing the same tasks as the hourly workers they oversee, they may not truly be exempt employees.
As such, they may have a legal right to overtime pay for the hours beyond 40 that they work per week. Evaluating job responsibilities and determining if an allegedly exempt manager spends 50% or more of their time performing unique functions or the same tasks as hourly employees can give workers denied overtime pay insight into their legal rights.
Professionals misclassified by their employers may have grounds for a wage and hour lawsuit that can lead to the payment of the overtime wages they should have received while performing the same functions as the hourly workers who do receive overtime pay.