In the recent case of Morgan v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc., the 11th Circuit affirmed a jury award of over $35 million dollars in unpaid overtime wages for more than one thousand store managers who had been misclassified as exempt. Like Dollar Stores, employers often operate under the mistaken belief that employees who are paid salaries and given managerial or executive titles are automatically exempt from the overtime. These misconceptions can have severe consequences if it is later determined that the employees were misclassified as exempt, but are in fact, entitled to overtime pay.
