In times when money is tight, some companies pump up employees’ job titles as a way to sweeten smaller pay hikes. It’s not a great idea.
First of all, it’s not very effective. Today’s workers are acutely sensitive to their financial stresses, and they’ve grown cynical enough to recognize when they’re being patronized.
Then there’s the “everybody’s a boss” syndrome.
John Skousen, partner in the Irvine, CA, office of the law firm Fisher & Phillips, compares “job title inflation” to grade inflation in education: “If everyone gets an A, how do you discern between the best and the average?”
But there’s a bigger problem: Inflate a worker’s title too much, and you could run into legal problems, Skousen says.
Lofty title doesn’t make ’em exempt
Employers who change workers’ titles can run into problems when the employee’s new title describes a position for which the employee really isn’t qualified. (Think a factory line worker being given the title of “assistant production supervisor.”)
This type of thing often occurs when employers consolidate two or more positions. But things can get dicey when the economy improves, new staff comes on board, and the company tries to maintain job classifications and salary ranges.
Finally, some employers make the mistake of thinking if they hand somebody a title with the word “manager” in it, that person automatically goes from non-exempt to exempt.
Unless the actual job duties or responsibilities change substantially — to meet the specific criteria for exempt workers — these employers could be in line for legal challenges for misclassification and claims for unpaid overtime.
