Posted on 02/04/2023 4:15:15 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Would you rather be a front-desk clerk or "Director of First Impressions"? A barber or a "Grooming Manager"?
How you answer could mean a significant difference in annual earnings. That's because companies routinely inflate workers' titles to avoid paying them in full for overtime work, according to researchers from the University of Texas and Harvard Business School.
It's no secret companies go to great lengths to keep their labor costs down. What the new working paper reveals is that firms save a total of $4 billion in overtime payments a year simply by getting creative with titles. For employees, however, these inflated titles result in 13% less pay than they might otherwise get.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Exempt means that the employee is considered to be on salary.
Whether or not they work 20 hour or 90 hours a week makes no matter. They are paid the same, regardless. No time sheets to fill out, no overtime to pay.
Titling them a manager, director, or professional, entitles them to a salary as opposed to an hourly wage.
There are pros and cons to both.
Grooming manager or a Public school teacher?
But the government tests for exempt and non-exempt are not about title - they examine what the employee actually does:
“These FLSA exemptions are limited to employees who perform relatively high-level work. Whether the duties of a particular job qualify as exempt depends on what they are. Job titles or position descriptions are of limited usefulness in this determination. (A secretary is still a secretary even if s/he is called an “administrative assistant,” and the chief executive officer is still the CEO even if s/he is called a janitor.) It is the actual job tasks that must be evaluated, along with how the particular job tasks “fit” into the employer’s overall operations.”
That’s the Fair Labor Standards Act talking. Of course, employer may give BS titles and hope they don’t get caught.
assistant TO the regional manager
The Office reference
Our state passed legislation a few years ago that increased the threshold for the salaried employee designation. It’s now at $62K per year and in a few years, it will be $85K. We are a medium sized business and many of our managers who have true management responsibilities have been converted to hourly employees. Most of these managers absolutely hate this change. They now have to punch a time clock and have no flexibility when it comes to changing their schedules. They used to be able to work unusual hours to complete their work, but now must work a conventional schedule to avoid overtime. Most liked the old system much better and bitch about the State making this change. However, we live in a blue state and most of these employees voted for the Dems who passed this legislation. When they complain I point out to them that they voted for the people who passed this nanny state legislation.
FLSA status does not depend on job title. https://www.fuseworkforce.com/blog/what-is-flsa-status-and-how-to-classify-employees-with-it
If I was a barber I’d turn down the title of grooming manager.
Just saying.
Exactly so
The simple term for this is “wage theft.” If you’re not directly supervising someone else, you should not be considered an exempt employee. IT workers lose a fortune in overtime because of this.
Just for info, all federal GS employees are hourly. That’s about 90% of them. Tells you all you need to know.
General Motors used to have a vice president of headrests.
Inquisitive people would ask if it was drivers side or passenger side.
(old joke)
It’s worse than that. My son was given a fake “manager” title and his pay was cut because he was expected to work 3-4 hour overtime each day because he was salaried. He quit that job after a couple of months of being abused.
I have been salaried and I was compensated for my overtime. It was a good company to work for.
Wasn’t it under Obama that the rules changed as to exempt and non-exempt employees? I was exempt and then designated as non-exempt, then back again to exempt all in the space of a a couple of years. I had gotten a raise and promotion and went to exempt, then the rules changed and I was back to non-exempt, then suddenly I was exempt again (Or it might have been vice-versa). It was really confusing since it happened at the end of the year and I went six weeks without a paycheck during one point as the rules change went in place. Management tried to change our titles, job duties, and pay scale as much as possible to prevent some from being subject to the new rules.
I remember the high-dollar paid people at my place of employment who weren’t effected by the changes took up a collection and paid all of us who were going without a paycheck right at Christmas a “donation” of about $500 bucks each in order to help us make the transition. It was right nice of them to recognize the stress the changes were causing us.
This is news?
On what planet is this worthy of resesrch?
Children.
i first went to work for Exxon in drilling. Most days began at 0530 with taking reports by hand and ended 12 or more hours later. Then there were field operations. Comp time was unheard of. Some rig hands made more and sure more by the equivalent hour.
I made more with overtime working construction during summers in college. I even made more than my GS-13 Dad.
I often told kids being Driller or Subsea Engineer offshore was a whole lot better than even drilling superintendent on a pay and free time basis. I have gone weeks on end never seeing my house during daylight and one year ate dinner at the table without phone interruption 6 times according to my wife.
I honestly would never again do some of the things I have done for what I was paid, some I should have just said no to and some I would never do again. Then there were the times the only choice was no job at all.
And Ed Norton was an “Underground Engineer”.
In the eighties we saw often saw this in banks.
Used to call them Vice President of the Left Side of the Building...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.