On October 12, 2022, the Supreme Court held oral argument to address the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Hewitt v. Helix Energy Sols. Group, Inc., 15 F.4th 289 (5th Cir. 2021), cert. granted, No. 21-984 (U.S. May 2, 2022), and a corresponding split among the circuit
Exemptions
Cable Technicians Were Exempt Commissioned Employees, Fifth Circuit Concludes
Although the plaintiff cable technicians, who were paid by the completed job and not by the hour, were covered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), they nonetheless were bona fide commissioned employees and therefore exempt from the overtime requirements of Act, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled. Accordingly, the district court’s…
Farm Animal Enclosure Construction Worker Not Penned In by FLSA’s Agricultural Exemption, 7th Circuit Holds
The mere fact that the plaintiff was building livestock enclosures on farms did not necessarily preclude his entitlement to overtime pay under the agricultural exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held. Therefore, the district court improperly dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint. Vanegas v. Signet Builders, Inc.,…
Property Damage Investigators Are Non-Exempt “Production” Employees, 11th Circuit Holds
Employees whose job it was to investigate and determine the likely cause of damage to the equipment of broadband service providers were misclassified as exempt by their employer, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held. Therefore, the employees’ overtime claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) were improperly dismissed by the trial court.…
Supreme Court to Review Fifth Circuit’s Oil Rig “Day Rate” Case
In April 2020, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that paying an employee a set amount for each day that he works (i.e., on a “day rate” basis) does not satisfy the “salary basis” component required to qualify as overtime-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards…
Eleventh Circuit Case An Excellent Primer on the FLSA’s Administrative Exemption
Business development managers, whose job was to convince corporate customers to purchase General Motors vehicles for their corporate fleets, qualified for the administrative exemption from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held. Brown v. Nexus Bus. Solutions, LLC, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8777…
Wage and Hour Division Nominee Clears First Senate Hurdle (Barely), Proposed Salary Increase for Overtime-Exempt Employees Appears Likely
Last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was absent from the meeting of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – and that spelled good news for the Biden Administration’s nominee to head the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor, Dr. David Weil. The nomination of Dr. Weil, who previously held the…
Alaska Supreme Court Cools Down Standard for Establishing State Law Wage & Hour Exemptions
Answering the first of two certified questions from an Alaska federal court and overturning nearly 30-year-old precedent, the Alaska Supreme Court has held that an employer need only establish an exemption under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act by a “preponderance of the evidence,” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Buntin v. 00073 Tmb Schlumberger…
New Secretary of Labor Hints at Increased Minimum Salary for Overtime Exemptions
Will the DOL again seek to raise the minimum salary level for exempt “white collar” employees?
In testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee on June 10, 2011, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh stated that the Department of Labor (DOL) is reviewing a Final Rule issued during the Trump administration, in which the DOL…
FLSA’s Extended Limitations Period Requires Plausible Factual Pleadings, Second Circuit Holds
Because the plaintiff failed to allege any facts supporting his claim that his former employer acted willfully in failing to pay him overtime, he was not entitled to the FLSA’s extended, three-year statute of limitations. Therefore, as his claim was filed well after the standard two-year limitations period for such claims had expired, the trial…