A sandwich shop hired an “Assistant Manager” to help in the day-to-day operation of the business. She worked for over 10 years for the restaurant and had seniority over many of her coworkers. As such, she often would open and close the shop and would train new hires. Other than that, her job duties were exactly the same or similar to those of her coworkers. She made sandwiches, worked the register, and cleaned the restaurant. Because she regularly opened and closed the restaurant, she routinely worked 12 to 16 hours a day. Unlike her co-workers, her employer did not pay her overtime for any hours that she worked in excess of 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week, claiming she was a salaried employee and therefore exempt from payment of overtime.

In actuality, this “Assistant Manager” was not an exempt employee, but was entitled to payment of overtime wages for any hours worked over 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. She was misclassified by her employer as exempt from overtime, even though her job duties were virtually the same as those of her coworkers.

Unless an employee’s job duties are deemed Executive, Administrative, or Professional, he or she is generally entitled to overtime compensation, even if paid a salary. At Jones, Clifford, Johnson & Johnson, we can identify whether an employee is properly classified as exempt from the payment of overtime wages and, if necessary, pursue an action to collect unpaid overtime wages.

We were able to successfully litigate a case against the sandwich shop on behalf of our client, and the judge ruled our client was entitled to over $40,000. Give us a call if you have a similar problem or know someone who does.