Big Lots managers may not be exempt under federal wage rules

Why the title on your badge is not the legal test

The word manager can sound definitive on a store floor, but federal wage law is less interested in titles than in the work behind them. At Big Lots, that distinction matters because a supervisor or assistant manager can be treated as exempt only if the role satisfies the salary rules, the duties test, and the salary-basis requirements that govern executive, administrative, and professional exemptions.

That is the core myth to bust: “manager” is not a shortcut to exempt status. The law looks at whether the job actually involves the kind of independent authority, judgment, and day-to-day responsibility that the exemption requires. If the role is mostly hourly, task-driven work, the label alone does not erase overtime rights.

What federal law actually requires

The current regulations in 29 CFR Part 541 say the main minimum wage and overtime exemptions apply to bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, along with outside sales employees. They also require most exempt workers to meet salary requirements and be paid on a salary basis. Just as important, the rules say a job title by itself is not enough to establish exempt status.

The Department of Labor’s guidance is even more explicit: an employee’s specific duties and salary must meet all requirements. Under the agency’s current enforcement posture, the standard salary level is $684 per week, and the highly compensated employee threshold is $107,432 a year. Employers may count nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments toward up to 10 percent of the standard salary level.

There is also a moving piece here. The DOL’s 2024 overtime rule, which would have raised salary thresholds and created automatic updates every three years, is tied up in litigation. For now, the department says it is enforcing the 2019 rule levels. For workers, that means the legal yardstick is current and concrete, not a vague promise of a future policy change.

What matters in the store, not on the org chart

For Big Lots employees, the practical question is not whether someone is called a manager. It is whether the person really spends the bulk of the job doing exempt-level work, with the kind of authority that the law expects.

That means looking at everyday realities: Who sets schedules? Who decides discipline? Who has authority over hiring or firing recommendations? How much of the day is spent on clerical work, stocking, cashier coverage, freight handling, or cleanup? If the answer is that the role is mostly hands-on labor with limited discretion, the exemption may not hold even if the title sounds elevated.

This is where store folklore can mislead people. A promotion can change responsibility without changing legal classification. It can also raise expectations without guaranteeing a salary structure that satisfies the rules. The safest approach is to compare the actual job duties with the wage-and-hour standard, not with what a district leader or store veteran says a “real manager” should be.

Big Lots has been here before

This is not abstract for Big Lots. California litigation has long put the company’s manager classifications under a microscope. In Mora v. Big Lots Stores, Inc., former store managers alleged that Big Lots classified them as exempt based on job description alone instead of what they actually did on the job. A California Court of Appeal opinion noted the managers said they spent less than half of their time on managerial tasks.

That allegation matters because the exemption test is built around how work is actually performed. If someone is spending most of the day doing the same work as hourly staff, with limited discretion and little real managerial control, the legal picture looks different from the title.

The company also paid to resolve an earlier California case. In February 2004, Big Lots agreed to pay $10 million to settle a class action involving 1,451 store managers and assistant store managers who said they were improperly denied overtime. The company did not admit wrongdoing, but the size of the class shows how broad and persistent the issue was for store leadership roles.

The long history behind the exemption test

The law’s focus on duties and salary is not new. The Congressional Research Service says the Labor Department first issued regulations to implement the executive, administrative, and professional exemption in 1938, then added a minimum salary threshold in 1940. In other words, the exemption has always had two parts: what the employee does and how the employee is paid.

That history matters because some workers assume the rules are mostly about titles or seniority. They are not. The structure has been the same for decades, even as salary thresholds and enforcement guidance have changed. For store leaders at a company like Big Lots, that means a promotion into management does not automatically flip the overtime switch off.

What the bankruptcy changes, and what it does not

Big Lots’ bankruptcy adds another layer of uncertainty for workers, but it does not change the basic wage rules. The company filed for Chapter 11 on September 9, 2024, saying it would keep operating while pursuing a sale. Court records later show that the case was converted to Chapter 7 on November 10, 2025.

That shift matters because liquidation changes how the business is wound down, how claims are processed, and what employees may need to watch for if they have unpaid wage issues. Big Lots’ restructuring administrator has been managing the case background and liquidation process, and the bankruptcy docket now reflects claims deadlines tied to that conversion.

For store leaders, the practical point is simple: bankruptcy does not wipe away the underlying question of whether past pay practices were lawful. If a role was misclassified, the fact that the company later entered Chapter 11 and then Chapter 7 does not rewrite the work that was actually performed.

What workers and managers should watch for now

If you work in a Big Lots leadership role, the right questions are the ones the law asks:

• Are you paid on a true salary basis?
• Does your pay meet the applicable threshold?
• Do you primarily manage the enterprise or a department?
• Do you regularly supervise other employees?
• Do you have real authority, or only a title that sounds important?

Those questions matter because the exemption turns on reality, not branding. A store can call someone a manager and still owe overtime if the job is mostly hourly labor, clerical tasks, or routine coverage with little independent judgment. That is the lesson from the federal rules, the DOL’s guidance, and Big Lots’ own litigation history.

The bottom line is that job titles can be inflated, but wage law is not. At Big Lots, the legal truth sits in the duties, the pay structure, and the actual power a worker has on the floor.