My assistant manager is on salary and works about 55 hours a week. Do I owe overtime?

The salary test is arithmetic: two times $16.90 an hour across 2,080 hours. If the salary is below that figure, the analysis stops there and the person is non-exempt regardless of title or responsibilities.

The duties test asks what they actually spend their time doing, not what the job description says. An assistant manager who spends most of a shift on the floor doing the same work as the crew is usually not performing exempt duties, even with real authority over scheduling.

The floor moves whenever the state minimum wage moves. A salary that qualified last year can quietly fall below the line in January, which is a common way employers drift into misclassification without changing anything.

Unpaid overtime for a misclassified employee accrues silently and is typically claimed years later, with interest and penalties. It is worth checking both halves of the test now rather than after someone leaves.