An employee is exempt from overtime only if they meet both a salary basis test and a duties test. Paying a salary satisfies one of those, not both.
The duties test asks what the person actually does day to day. Calling someone a manager while their work is largely non-exempt does not create an exemption, and the analysis is applied by role rather than by individual.
Because misclassification usually applies across a whole job category, the exposure is multiplied by headcount and by the lookback period. This is worth auditing before somebody files.
