Most small box retailers treat the manager of each individual
location as an exempt employee under the "managerial
exemption" of the Fair Labor Standards Act. As such, the store
managers are not paid for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Many
small retailers, those with stores typically between 7,000 and
10,000 square feet, have been assaulted with litigation from
current and former store managers claiming they are not exempt
employees. This article takes a closer look at two cases that came
to diametrically different results based on very similar facts.
The Plot
In order to qualify under this exemption, individual employees
must meet a series of criteria. They must be paid at least $455 per
week on a salary basis, customarily and regularly direct the work
of two or more full time employees, hire and fire employees or make
recommendations on hiring and firing, and their primary duty must
be the management of the enterprise by which they are employed, or
of a
