from www.hrtechnews.com

The rules on which employees are exempt from overtime may be complicated, but a recent court ruling highlights one simple fact:

Misapplying the exemptions can cost companies a lot of money.

TAC Worldwide, a Massachusetts-based staffing firm, has just agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages to 973 employees who sued for being mistakenly classified as exempt from OT.

Most of the affected employees held IT-related positions. Job titles of those who sued include: network engineer, help desk representative, technical writer, software tester and network administrator.

A common classification mistake is focusing on title rather than actual job duties. Employees may have titles that sound exempt — but employers still need to look at what those employees do on a daily basis and make sure the duties match up with at least one of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s OT exemptions.

For more information on the exemptions, click here.

Cite: Chao v. 888 Consulting Group, Inc.

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