The normal employment standards law duty to pay overtime doesn’t cover supervisors and managers (referred to collectively “managers,” unless indicated otherwise). Being able to recognize who’s a manager is crucial. Misclassifying a manager as an employee may result in paying overtime when you’re not required to; misclassifying an employee as a manager exposes your organization to risk of grievances, complaints, prosecution, fines and other penalties. In Ontario,  a person “whose work is supervisory or managerial in character and who may perform non-supervisory or non-managerial tasks on an irregular or exceptional basis” is exempt from overtime requirements. An irregular non-managerial task means something exceptional and that isn’t covered in the job description. For example, an employee required to clean the gutters each spring is performing a non-managerial task infrequently, but not irregularly. Ontario uses the so called “50% rule”: Employees aren’t subject to the exemption if they spend at least 50% of their time on duties that are covered by mandatory overtime.   Overtime Traps to Avoid: Misclassifying Employees as Managers