Saw this interesting piece today and am not surprised at all:
Companies are handing out fake job titles
Ever heard of a Chief Fun Officer or a Happiness Engineer? According to research for the National Bureau of Economic Research, these made-up titles are used to avoid paying workers overtime. Federal law requires companies to pay overtime unless an employee’s pay meets a certain threshold or their job duties are managerial according to specific criteria set out by law. That’s why, to cut overtime costs, many businesses have been assigning non-managers job titles that imply managerial duties, even if none exist. For example, a front-desk receptionist is referred to as the Director of First Impressions. Researchers estimate that over 70,000 U.S. employees who are categorized as managers should be receiving overtime pay and that they are missing around 13.5% of their annual wages. Refusing to pay overtime to qualified employees is a form of wage theft, and the Department of Labor has already recovered millions in back wages from employers who engage in this practice.