Exempt Managers Spending Major Time on Nonmanagerial Duties May Not Affect Exempt Status
The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (MD, VA, W. VA, NC, SC) provided a significant win for employers in today’s multiple-hat-wearing, everybody-rolls-up-their-sleeves-and-pitches-in style of management, by finding that a store manager who spent most of her time on non-managerial duties is nonetheless exempt from the overtime pay requirements.
Grace, a store manager for Family Dollar claimed she was owed overtime pay and should not have been classified as an exempt store manager. Because she spent most of her workday on nonmanagerial tasks such as running the cash register, putting out stock, and janitorial work, she claimed that her “primary duty” was not management. Thus, despite the fact that she managed two or more other employees, had hiring and firing authority, and was responsible for overall store profitability and management, she asserted that she should receive overtime pay.
Unfortunately for her, no matter how much time she spent ringing up sales or mopping the floor, the Court of Appeals had little difficulty finding she is still the store’s manager and is still an exempt executive employee. The Court’s analysis is particularly well stated, so let’s borrow the Court’s words:
“[T]ime alone ‘is not the sole test’ [of whether someone is an exempt manager or executive] . . .Grace was in charge of a separate retail store, seeking to make it profitable. While she catalogs the nonmanagerial jobs that she had to do, claiming they occupy most of her time, she does so without recognizing that during 100% of the time, even while doing those jobs, she was also the person responsible for running the store. Indeed, there was no else to do so, and it cannot be rationally assumed . . . that the store went without management 99% of the time. Grace also fails to acknowledge the importance of performing nonmanagerial tasks in manner that could make the store profitable, the goal of her managerial responsibility.”
Bottom line: mopping the floor does not necessarily make an employee not a manager for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act, at least in the view of the 4th Circuit. If the person’s overall role and responsibilities are managerial, helping out in other ways won’t necessarily remove his or her overtime exemption.
So, while courts in other parts of the country may differ, go ahead . . . make that VP you don’t like take out the trash. Just make sure that 100% of the time, he or she has one or more over-arching exempt responsibilities.
