---
title: "How To AVOID An Employee Misclassification LAWSUIT: Is An Hourly Employee Exempt Or Nonexempt?"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/7f25950f-bfa5-4fe9-9c5f-afbd46f30ea8
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/how-to-avoid-an-employee-misclassification-lawsuit-is-an-hourly-employee-exempt-or-nonexempt-2710258
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["Regulation & legal"]
published: 2019-06-18T19:14:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:30:07.357Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/fdaa4021d3fadb592297964236cb8f691692.jpg
---

# How To AVOID An Employee Misclassification LAWSUIT: Is An Hourly Employee Exempt Or Nonexempt?

**TL;DR:** Restaurant owners should properly classify employees to avoid misclassification lawsuits. Carrie explains the importance of classifying employees as exempt or non-exempt to avoid legal action.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-06-18. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/how-to-avoid-an-employee-misclassification-lawsuit-is-an-hourly-employee-exempt-or-nonexempt-2710258).*

## Story

In this video, I explain the importance of properly classifying your employees in order to avoid any potential misclassification legal action. Having coherent job descriptions and activities for each role can help restaurant owners organize their staff in two categories depending on how they are paid, whether it’s a fixed salary or an hourly one: exempt and non-exempt employees.

*Carrie is a frequent keynote speaker on HR and leadership topics and regularly conducts employee training and leadership development workshops as well. She is the author of the recently published book,* Restaurant Operator's HR Playbook: Your Hands-On Playbook for Finding, Hiring, and Developing Leaders *and Implementing Organized People Systems and has been featured in* Entrepreneur*,* Restaurant News*,* Pizza Today *and* Independent Restaurateur.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Entrepreneur (publication)
- leadership development (topic)
- restaurant management (topic)
- hr topics (topic)
- employee classification (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/how-to-avoid-an-employee-misclassification-lawsuit-is-an-hourly-employee-exempt-or-nonexempt-2710258). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/7f25950f-bfa5-4fe9-9c5f-afbd46f30ea8).