A company misclassified an employee as exempt from overtime pay and paid her a fixed salary regardless of hours worked. The court ruled the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and upheld the use of the fluctuating workweek method to calculate overtime damages. This method divides the weekly salary by total hours worked (not just 40) to determine the regular rate, then applies the 1.5x multiplier to overtime hours. The decision matters because it shows courts will enforce overtime pay even when there's a fixed salary arrangement, and the calculation method can significantly reduce what employers owe.
Misclassifying workers as exempt from overtime is costly—the court enforced full back pay plus damages using a method that reduced the hourly rate but still required overtime premiums