1. Amy classified the shift leaders for exempt status because some of their job functions fall within the criteria of an exempt employee. The criteria’s she based the exemption status on were their responsibilities and duties which enabled them to have a certain amount of authority and other factors led to the consideration for the exemption status. The nature of their duties as managers allowed them the ability to delegate and assign the employee to the various work areas. They were further classified because of their day to day responsibility that included running the floor, making limited managerial decisions, ability to sit in on potential prospect interviews, knowing first hand who is about to be terminated as well as providing feedback for associates performance review to the assistant managers. In addition to the managerial duties which were done for a small portion of the day, they had to assume the role of the associates by assisting customers and ringing up sales for the greater portion of the day. Since the team leaders has some form of responsibilities as a manager Amy believes that she can appropriately classify them as exempt employees which qualifies for no overtime pay; she even reference the FLSA to Jane.
By classifying the shift leaders as exempt allows for Amy to pay them a salary which is not clearly stated in the case. Also under the provisions of the FLSA if you are qualified as an exempt employee, you are not entitled to overtime pay. Lastly, the department store is benefiting greatly because upper management is able to get more than the regular 40 hours out of the employees with the benefit of not having to pay them time in a half or overtime for the extra hours worked which gives Amy leverage because she’s able to keep her personnel budget down.
2. The shift leaders are not properly classified as exempt employees. In order for consideration for an employee to be exempt the employer must take into consideration