Assignment task:
A woman was hired as the "chef de cuisine" at a catering company. The company had an executive chef who supervised the kitchen manager and the chef de cuisine. On the organizational chart, the "chef de cuisine" is the second highest-ranking position in the kitchen. The woman spent an estimated 90 percent of her time cooking. She was hired at a salary of $45,000 per year, and her wage was subsequently raised to $52,000 per year. She did not receive overtime pay when she worked more than forty hours a week. The catering company paid its other cooks an hourly wage ranging from $9.00 to $14.00 per hour. One of the more experienced cooks earned $20,620 per year.
The chef de cuisine attended managerial meetings on Mondays whenever she was scheduled to work that day. The managerial meetings were participated in by salespeople and people in charge of the various departments. The executive chef, the kitchen manager, and the chef de cuisine were the kitchen employees who attended the managerial meetings. The executive chef was the person who spoke about the kitchen operations and the person to whom questions were directed.
Cooks were required to punch a time clock, but the chef de cuisine was not. She was responsible for directing the work of the cooks and monitored other staff members and the food production under the direction and supervision of the executive chef. If a problem arose between the employees in the kitchen, the problem would be communicated to the woman, who would then bring the issue to the executive chef. When any of the cooks hada question about one of their job assignments, they were supposed to direct it to the chef de cuisine. When the executive chef was absent, the woman was in the kitchen. On one specific occasion, the woman confronted a sous chef who had not adequately prepared for an event; she reported the incident to the executive chef, and the sous chef was fired. The woman sued under the Fair Labor Standards Act for unpaid overtime work. Is she an exempt employee? Why or why not?