Overtime Exemption Misapplied to Steak ‘n Shake Managers, Says Plaintiff

An Illinois manager of a Steak ‘n Shake restaurant claims the company misclassified its managers for overtime exemption.

Plaintiff Corinna Clendenen filed this Fair Labor Standards Act class action lawsuit at the end of January 2017 in a federal court in Illinois. Clendenen alleges defendant Steak N Shake Operations Inc. misclassified its management employees as exempt from overtime protection in order to avoid paying them a higher wage for extra hours.

Clendenen has worked for two years as a Steak ‘n Shake manager. During that time, she claims, she was often scheduled for and worked 50 or more hours per week. But because the company had classified her with an overtime exemption, she says, she was not paid at an overtime rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a single week.

Other Steak ‘n Shake managers are subject to a similar work schedule of more than 40 hours per week, Clendenen claims. She alleges managers as a group are subject to the same overtime exemption, preventing them from receiving proper overtime pay.

She further alleges that Steak ‘n Shake failed to maintain accurate records of how many hours its managers worked.

Plaintiff Says Overtime Exception Not Consistent with FLSA

Clendenen argues this scheduling is a deliberate violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. Among other worker protections, the FLSA generally requires employers to pay workers at a rate at least one-and-a-half times the regular rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a single week.

An exception to this protection applies for certain types of employees who are categorized by law as “exempt.” The exemption usually applies to types of employees, such as executive and professional employees, who have historically been less vulnerable to abusive labor practices.

Whether a given employer has properly applied an overtime exemption to a particular group of employees is a common subject of FLSA class action lawsuits like Clendenen’s.

In her overtime classification class action lawsuit, Clendenen proposes to represent an FLSA collective consisting of all current and former managers who worked at Steak ‘n Shake corporate-owned restaurants outside the St. Louis area during the three years prior to the filing of this action.

Claims under the FLSA are brought on behalf of a “collective.” Persons who qualify for collective membership must affirmatively opt in if they want to participate in the action. Alternatively, members can decline to join the collective if they prefer to bring their own individual FLSA lawsuit.

She seeks a court order requiring Steak ‘n Shake to amend its overtime exception policy to conform to the FLSA. She also seeks a damage award to cover back overtime pay for herself and Class Members.

The Steak ‘n Shake Overtime Exemption Class Action Lawsuit is Corinna Clendenen v. Steak N Shake Operations Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-01045, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

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