A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against Hy-Vee Inc., alleging the grocery store chain violates federal labor laws by failing to pay overtime for department managers.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on behalf of former employee Dawn Nicosia and other Hy-Vee workers. It seeks to recover what it claims are unpaid overtime wages, plus penalties and interest for violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
A Hy-Vee spokesperson said Friday the company believes the lawsuit and allegations lack merit and will be addressed through the legal process. The company operates more than 240 retail stores in several Midwestern states, including Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The lawsuit alleges salaried positions that carry the title of department manager, which are below the level of store director, assistant store director and store manager, are designed to circumvent payment of overtime wages. The salaried positions include department managers for the stores’ bakery, food service, meat department and produce department, as well as salaried, trainee-level department managers.
The lawsuit alleges Nicosia was employed as a bakery manager at a Hy-Vee store in Peoria, Illinois, from January 2024 through May 2025, and that she routinely worked more than 40 hours per week without collecting overtime compensation.
According to the lawsuit, Hy-Vee department managers are required to work 45 hours per week at a minimum. Their work, the lawsuit alleges, requires little specialized skills, no capital investment, and does not primarily include managerial responsibilities or the exercise of meaningful independent judgment — the duties typically associated with overtime-exempt management positions.
The lawsuit alleges the department managers spend more than half their time engaged in manual labor and physical movement and exertion, as opposed to working in an office. They do not, the lawsuit claims, have responsibility for hiring, firing, disciplining or directing the work of others. As such, their work does not “materially differ from the duties of non-exempt, hourly paid employees,” the lawsuit alleges.
Through a “centralized, company-wide policy, pattern, and practice of minimizing labor costs,” Hy-Vee has violated state and federal wage-and-hour laws, the lawsuit claims. In addition, the lawsuit claims the “willful” nature of the violations is demonstrated by the company’s alleged failure to investigate prior complaints from salaried department managers.
The lawsuit seeks class action status due to the number of potential plaintiffs being so large as to make individualized litigation impractical.
The plaintiff is represented by Madison Fiedler-Carlson of the Fiedler Law Firm in Johnston, and by Bethany A. Hilbert of the Head Law Firm in Chicago, Illinois.
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