Are Managers Exempt from Overtime Pay?

An Oakland, Calif. resident has accused Urban Outfitters, the popular retail chain, of not paying him overtime pay that was due to him.

Plaintiff Fredrick F. worked as a district manager for Urban Outfitters. He claims that he worked approximately 45-50 hours per week as a district manager without receiving overtime pay.

Urban Outfitters is a retail chain based in Pennsylvania but has stores throughout the United States.

According to the overtime pay lawsuit, Fredrick alleges that Urban Outfitters “maintains control, oversight, and discretion over the operation of its retail stores, including their employment practices with respect to” himself.

Fredrick alleges that he was incorrectly classified as “exempt” from legal protections like overtime pay requirements when he should have been classified as “non-exempt.” He says his job required very little skill and no capital investment, and his “primary duties did not involve managerial responsibilities, nor was he required to exercise meaningful independent judgment and discretion”

Frederick claims that according to Urban Outfitters’ recent Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the district manager position is actually a subordinate position and is subject to a lot of manual work. These tasks include “cleaning the store, folding clothes, building displays, and unloading freight.”

The district manager’s job did not include responsibilities such as supervising, hiring and firing, disciplining or “exercising meaningful independent judgment and discretion.” Frederick asserts that his district manager title meant little as he had the job responsibilities of a normal staff member at a retail store.

Regardless of the work Frederick actually performed, his position was classified as an “exempt” position. That is, it is considered exempt from overtime pay and regulations regarding hours worked.

Frederick believes that his job should not have been considered exempt under the FLSA, or the Fair Labor Standards Act. He believes that he was required to work extra hours because Urban Outfitters’ labor budgets were not adequate to cover the costs of necessary labor required by each store’s needs.

Frederick says that Urban Outfitters “did not consider the impact of its small labor budgets on his job duties, including whether these small labor budgets forced managers to perform manual labor and non-exempt duties due to the limited amount of money available to pay hourly (non-exempt) employees to perform such work.”

Fredrick alleges that Urban Outfitters willfully and repeatedly engaged in a pattern of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act when it came to overtime pay and classification of employees. He believes that his employer knew or should have known that his position required labor similar to a non-exempt worker, that his position should have been classified as non-exempt, and that, he should have received overtime pay for the extra hours worked. In his overtime pay lawsuit, Fredrick holds Urban Outfitters responsible for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

This Overtime Pay Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-06217-JCS in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

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