It pays to double check that you’ve classified employees properly so nobody’s short OT wages. Here are 500,000 reasons why: 

St. Louis-based Panera Bread Co. agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a wage and hour class action lawsuit.

What happened:

Panera misclassified nearly 70 general managers who work in its California cafes as exempt from OT pay.

Here’s how the settlement will be paid out:

• The managers will receive about $75 per workweek they worked as general managers between Jan. 1, 2005 and Jan. 20, 2009.
• The plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive about $146,000 in fees and costs
• Pati Johns, the lead plaintiff, will receive $7,500
• The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency will receive $1,000 to settle claims of civil penalties under California law, and
• $25,000 will be set aside for administrator costs.

Tags: California, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, exempt, lawsuit, nonexempt workers, OT pay, Panera Bread, Pati Johns, settlement