A $9M settlement shows the hourly-work test for manager titles

A title tells you less than the work

Hannaford accepted a nearly $9 million class-action settlement for middle managers' unpaid overtime in Northeast stores. If your title says manager, lead, or supervisor, but your week is mostly hands-on, the payout points to the same question: what does the job actually do?

Tasha Vye, who previously managed a bakery at a Hannaford in Lewiston, filed the federal lawsuit in 2024. The Portland U.S. District Court approved the settlement on Aug. 27. It reaches more than 1,400 workers. The covered states are Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire. The settlement covers unpaid store overtime in Maine and New York from 2018 through 2024, and in Massachusetts from 2023 through 2024.

Hannaford said the department manager, evening operations manager, and associate relations manager roles would move to nonexempt salaried status rather than exempt status. Court records put the possible impact at over 1,200 current and former employees. Vye said the company's exempt label for department managers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, among other laws.

The settlement puts the question in plain language: if the job is mostly hands-on, the exempt label may not fit. The title is easy to read. The week is harder to describe. The checklist answers that question.

Run the checklist before you argue the title

The duties test asks what the job actually does. If you carry a manager, lead, or supervisor title and spend most of your day doing the work, run this checklist.

Hands-on work would still need to happen if the title disappeared: stocking, serving, preparing, cleaning, operating equipment, answering phones, processing orders. Directing work changes what other people do: scheduling, assigning tasks, reviewing output, coaching, approving time, handling performance issues.

• Split a normal week into hands-on tasks and directing tasks. Do it for a normal week, not a bad week or a busy holiday. The split shows whether the job is mostly production or supervision.
• Check the company's exempt and nonexempt policy for your title and its assumed duties. A title that appears in the exempt list is a starting point, not a verdict.
• Note uncounted hours and tasks: early opening, late closing, restocking, customer service, or anything outside the written job description. These are the hours that often disappear from a salaried schedule.
• Keep records that show the actual job, and make sure you can pull them quickly: schedules, emails, task lists, and notes from a normal week. The record should make the split obvious without your explanation.

The policy step catches companies that use the same title for different jobs. A department manager in a store may supervise a team, while another spends most of the shift doing the work. The policy gives the company's version. Your week gives the actual one.

Uncounted hours are the easiest part to miss. Salaried work often includes time before opening, after closing, or during breaks that are not really breaks. If you are doing tasks that no one logs, write them down the same day. A short note with date, time, and task is better than a memory.

Records should be boring and consistent. A schedule, a task list, an email that says you covered a shift, or a note that you opened the store can show the actual job. You do not need to prove intent. You need to show what the job regularly looks like.

Keep the record before you need it

Career advice that ignores the org chart misses the real question: who directs whom, and who does the hands-on work. A title can feel like a promise, and people take titles seriously. The record should match the job, not the label.

If the checklist shows your work is mostly hands-on, ask whether the role should be overtime-eligible. Talk with the person who controls the org chart, usually a manager or HR partner, and ask for a written review of duties. Bring the records. You are not asking for sympathy; you are asking for the job to be described accurately.