The Kroger assistant store manager lawsuit is a consolidated collective action in federal court in Ohio alleging that the grocery chain misclassified roughly 1,500 former assistant store managers as salaried-exempt, forcing them to work 50 to 60 hours a week on cashier and stocking duties without overtime pay. The lead case, Schell v. The Kroger Co., was filed in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and has since absorbed similar suits from multiple states. Kroger denies wrongdoing but has begun settling.
What the Assistant Store Managers Say They Actually Did
Lead plaintiff Thomas Schell, a former ASM at an Ohio Kroger, earned about $49,000 a year and said he routinely worked 50 to 60 hours a week doing work indistinguishable from that of hourly employees.1Top Class Actions. Kroger Assistant Store Managers Can Now Consent to Join Collective Action Rather than hiring, firing, budgeting, or training staff, he said he spent his time “regularly filling store shortages.”2RetailWire. Store Managers Mistreated, Missing Overtime Pay
Court filings allege Kroger “knew or recklessly disregarded” that its labor budget decisions pushed ASMs into unpaid overtime while the salaried-exempt label let the company skip time-and-a-half.3Cincinnati Enquirer. Lawsuit Accuses Kroger of Using Assistant Managers to Save Money The non-managerial duties ASMs say they performed include:
- Helping customers and working cash registers
- Stocking shelves and moving products
- Setting and resetting displays
- Counting inventory
- Cleaning the store
How the Cases Were Consolidated
Conway Legal filed the original ASM suits in early 2021. One targeted Kroger’s Fred Meyer subsidiary on January 19, 2021, covering more than 130 stores across Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and seeking overtime back pay from January 2018 forward.4Conway Legal. Fred Meyer Sued for Failing to Pay Overtime to Assistant Store Managers A broader suit against The Kroger Co. followed on February 9, 2021, covering more than 1,200 stores in 15 states.5Conway Legal. Kroger Sued for Failing to Pay Overtime to Assistant Store Managers
Schell then became the vehicle for consolidating more than half a dozen individual suits filed in Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. By 2024, roughly 1,500 former Kroger ASMs had joined the collective action before U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett in Cincinnati.3Cincinnati Enquirer. Lawsuit Accuses Kroger of Using Assistant Managers to Save Money One of the folded-in cases came from William Powell, a former assistant manager at a City Market store in Colorado, whose July 2020 suit alleged FLSA violations and breaches of Colorado wage law. By January 2024, the parties in that matter had filed a joint motion to submit a redacted settlement agreement.6Bloomberg Law. Kroger Settles Assistant Managers Wages and Hours Suit
Where the Settlements Stand
Reporting from December 2025, citing the Cincinnati Enquirer, said Kroger had recently settled a lawsuit with 2,500 current and former assistant store managers over “thousands of hours” of uncovered overtime. The company was also finalizing settlements in two additional lawsuits, with more cases still pending.2RetailWire. Store Managers Mistreated, Missing Overtime Pay Dollar amounts for the ASM settlements have not been publicly disclosed in the available reporting.
Kroger has denied the allegations throughout. In court filings the company said it “has not been found to have misclassified anyone or engaged in any form of wrongdoing” and denied “any unlawful or wrongful treatment.”2RetailWire. Store Managers Mistreated, Missing Overtime Pay Kroger admitted only that Schell worked as an ASM and denied the remaining substantive claims in his complaint.3Cincinnati Enquirer. Lawsuit Accuses Kroger of Using Assistant Managers to Save Money According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Kroger has faced more than 20 such lawsuits across its grocery banners since 2020.
The Legal Question Behind the Case
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires time-and-a-half for hours over 40 in a week, but it exempts employees in bona fide executive, administrative, or professional roles. To qualify for the executive exemption, an employee generally must be paid on a salary basis, earn at least a minimum weekly amount, and spend the work performing genuinely managerial duties such as directing other employees and exercising independent judgment on significant business matters.
The ASM plaintiffs are not arguing that the title on paper was wrong. They argue the daily reality bore no resemblance to management, so the exemption never should have applied. That factual question — what the ASMs actually did with their time — is the pivot point in the litigation.
Related Kroger E-Commerce Manager Suits
The misclassification theory has spread to another Kroger role. In early 2026, two proposed collective actions were filed alleging that “e-commerce managers,” who oversee online grocery fulfillment, were also misclassified as exempt. Morgan & Morgan filed the first on February 25, 2026, in a Colorado federal court and the second on March 2, 2026, in a Washington state court, alleging FLSA and state wage-law violations. Each suit says at least 100 employees per state may be eligible to join.7Grocery Dive. Kroger Two Lawsuits Ecommerce Worker Classification Conway Legal has separately filed its own e-commerce suits, listing the role as e-commerce manager, e-commerce supervisor, and e-commerce leader.8Conway Legal. Kroger Assistant Store Manager Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit Those cases are separate from the ASM collective action in Schell.