|
Many employees who are classified by their employer as salaried managers or supervisors are entitled to overtime pay. Employers intentionally try to classify employees as salaried managers or supervisors to avoid paying their employees overtime. Whether an employee is truly a salaried "manager" or "supervisor" for the purposes of the overtime law is very fact specific. Some (but not all) of the relevant factors that determine whether an employee is an "overtime exempt" manager or supervisor under Federal Law are: 1. Whether the employee truly "manages" or "supervises" other employees. A manager or supervisor who has no control over other employees, who cannot direct how they do their work, or who has no decision making authority in respect to how work is conducted in the workplace may not be an "overtime exempt" manager or supervisor. 2. Whether the employee is subject to a docking of pay for "partial day" absences of less than one day. An "overtime exempt" salaried manager or supervisor cannot be docked a part of a day's pay (be it one-half a day's pay, two hour's pay, or some other amount) when he misses a portion of a day's work (he must be paid for the entire day). If he misses an entire day's work he can be docked for an entire day's pay. The "partial docking" of an employee's daily pay is inconsistent with his status as a "salaried" manager or supervisor and will convert an otherwise overtime exempt manager or supervisor into an overtime eligible employee. This rule has been strictly construed against employers and even a slight violation of the "no partial docking" of daily pay rule can result in a very substantial overtime liability to an employer. 3. Whether the employee spends the majority of his time performing management functions or only acts in a management capacity some of the time. An employee who does not exercise management or supervisory powers all of the time and who spends a substantial amount of his time performing the work of regular non-management employees may not be exempt from the law's overtime pay requirements. 4. Whether an employee is paid on an hourly or salaried basis. Hourly pay employees are not "overtime exempt" regardless of their management functions. There are other factors which also bear on whether a particular employee is properly exempt from the overtime law as a manager or supervisor. Please contact this office if you have questions about whether you are an overtime exempt manager or supervisor. |