Helping Managers Who Have Been Improperly Classified as Exempt Recover Wages Owed to Them

MANAGERS

Managers are sometimes improperly exempted by employers. To be legally exempted from daily, weekly, and seventh day overtime, as well as required breaks, a California manager or assistant manager must:

• earn at least two times the minimum wage (approximately $28,000 per year)
• perform duties not also performed by non-exempt workers for at least half of their daily work (cannot do the same work as non-managers 50% or more of the time)

As of July 1, 2014, to qualify for a “white collar” exemption, an employee must earn an annual salary of at least $37,440, and beginning January 1, 2016, an annual salary of at least $41,600.

ASSISTANT MANAGERS

California Assistant Store Managers and Restaurant Assistant Managers working on salary over 40 hours a week, who also perform non-exempt duties, are entitled to overtime pay. Federal law mandates overtime pay for retail and restaurant workers for performing non-exempt work. 

If you are an Assistant Manager, Assistant Store Manager, Co-Manager, Assistant Retail Manager, or are in a similar assistant manager job position and do not get paid for working overtime, you may be owed overtime back pay for being wrongfully misclassified as an exempt employee. 

Many major US retailers have misclassified assistant managers as exempt. If you are a current or former assistant manager at a retail outlet, such as Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Rite-Aid, Target or dozens of other major retailers, you may be owed back pay for being wrongfully misclassified as an exempt employee.