Salaried Manager Overtime Audit: Hannaford Settlement

A salaried department manager can spend the shift stocking shelves, running registers, and closing the store. If the schedule says hourly worker, the executive exemption is likely gone. The daily work decides the case.

On August 27, 2026, Federal Judge Lance E. Walker in Maine approved the $8,875,000 settlement in Vye v. Hannaford Bros. Co., LLC. The October 2, 2024 complaint said salaried department managers were treated as exempt under the FLSA and state wage laws while doing much of the same hourly work as their teams. The case is a useful check for multi-location retail and food-service businesses.

The title does not carry the exemption

The class-action payout included $3 million for lawyers' fees and expenses. The approved amount left roughly $5.82 million for workers after legal fees, costs, and service awards. Notice reached 1,296 people in the FLSA opt-in group, and 456 returned consent forms.

The covered group included more than 1,400 people in locations across the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. The covered periods ran 2018 to 2024 in Maine and New York, and 2023 to 2024 in Massachusetts. For a multi-location business, those numbers define who gets notice and how far back the exposure runs. Soon after the complaint, Hannaford said it would start paying overtime to hundreds of midlevel managers. Hannaford spokesperson Ericka Dodge Katz maintained that the Department Manager classification has always met state and federal wage rules.

A 2023 study estimated that inflated management titles let employers avoid about $4 billion in overtime each year, or $3,194 per employee, equal to 13.5% of total salary. Use the estimate as a reason to audit every salaried manager role, not just the role that drew the complaint.

Five questions separate exempt work from hourly work

Run the audit before the next pay period. The salary floor and primary duty are legal requirements. The title check, exempt-duty percentage sample, and overtime practice file are good practice that makes the position defensible. A short file is easier to defend than a memory of what the manager usually does.

• List the title and the real duties. Write a one-line statement that shows whether the job description says stocking, cashiering, and closing. If the duties are mostly the team's hourly work, the title is not enough. Put the actual tasks in the file, not just the job title.
• Confirm the salary meets the threshold. The pay file needs base salary at or above the applicable floor, with no side agreements that cut it. A salary that is promised but not actually paid is a red flag. Check the pay record against the written offer.
• Identify the primary duty. A duty log should show management, supervision, and planning as the main job, not incidental. The test asks what the worker spends the day doing, not what the org chart says. Count the hours, not the occasional store meeting.
• Measure the exempt-duty percentage. A weekly sample should show exempt tasks take a clear majority of hours. When the worker is mostly stocking, cashiering, or closing, the exemption is weak. Use the sample to decide whether the role should be reclassified.
• Review overtime practice. Keep time records, a documented reason for not tracking hours, and a consistent rule for off-the-clock work. When managers are expected to stay late without pay, the practice is the problem. Where the role is nonexempt, track hours and pay overtime before the next pay period.

Keep the audit in one place. A manager's file should show the job description, the pay record, a short duty sample, and the overtime rule. When a new manager is hired, repeat the audit before the first full month. When duties change, repeat it before the next pay period. State rules can be stricter, so check the local wage law before you rely on the base answer. A defensible file should let a manager, an HR lead, or a lawyer see the same facts without rebuilding the story.