Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, managers are often exempt from overtime pay. But watch out for the common mistake of lumping assistant managers in with them.
Often, the mistake is the result of paying more attention to a job title than someone’s actual job duties. Even when an employee is called a “manager,” he or she isn’t automatically exempt, since managerial jobs can often involve a lot of non-managerial duties, like clerical work or physical labor.
Assistant managers have to meet the same exemption criteria as managers – that is, their primary duty is managing the department, they’ve got at least two full-time employees (or an equivalent number of part-timers) working under them, and they have the authority to hire and fire, or at least significant pull when it comes to personnel decisions.
Whether or not an assistant meets the exempt standard will vary from employee to employee. Some managers, especially in large departments, may share enough authority to make the assistant exempt. In other cases, the manager will be very hands-on, so that the assistant’s primary duty is just to make sure the manager’s decisions get carried out. Employees in that position are most likely nonexempt.
Jobs need to be reviewed on an individual basis to see if the exemption applies. If a position does have enough managerial authority to qualify for an exemption, those duties should be added to the job description to clear up confusion and provide documented evidence if a complaint about unpaid overtime comes up.
