I could only?

[Eway]

The sentences I read are :

"I had assumed that a base salary with profit incentives was okay. I learned from that lawsuit that I could pay salaries only to my managers."

This is so strange....
The boss could only pay salaries to his managers but not other employees?

Is he saying that he could pay salaries "only to" the managers (doesn't have to pay other employees),
or he could pay "salaries only" (without incentives) to his managers,
and other employees still have both the base salary and profit incentives?

(By the way, according to American law, why is that so? )

[AintFoolin]

Hourly workers are paid wages by the hour.

Managers are usually paid a flat salary (ie they don't get overtime).

You can't make factory workers work unpaid overtime by declaring them 'managers'

[Tdol]

You can't make factory workers work unpaid overtime by declaring them 'managers'

Phew

[Eway]

So.....it's saying that according to the law,

the boss doesn't have to pay the managers overtime but has to pay other employees overtime?
Doesn't sound very fair though......

[AintFoolin]

managers usually get paid a decent amount more than regular wage slaves, even accounting for overtime. so it's not like they're hurting.

[Eway]

I guess I belong to the "regular wage slaves".

That'a why I don't understand.