Companies avoid paying about $4 billion in overtime wages by inventing dubious titles for US employees such as “director of first impressions” and “lead shower door installer,” according to new research on a common practice that skirts federal labor law.The practice, often deployed by retail and restaurant companies, takes advantage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which exempts firms from paying overtime wages if the employee is a manager and gets paid a salary above a certain threshold. From 2010 to 2018, the researchers found a 485% increase in job postings for salaried employees in dodgy managerial roles where duties rarely included any actual management. Companies avoided paying overtime on more than 151 million work hours via this practice, the study found, costing workers an estimated $4 billion in pay.Other suspect job titles identified by researchers included carpet shampoo manager, price scanning coordinator and guest experience leader...The threshold for overtime pay used in the research was $455 a week, or $23,660 a year, which was increased to $684 a week in 2020.“The findings are the tip of the iceberg,” the researchers said. “Overtime avoidance can occur at other salary levels too and in different ways.”
More at the Bloomberg link.
When I started work in 1976, as an engineer, we all classified as 'exempt', as in 'exempt from getting paid overtime'.
ReplyDeleteIn all of my jobs in almost 30 years of engineering, I have always been an exempt employee, as well. In some cases, if I had to work any overtime or travel on personal time, I got comp time off.
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