On the Basis of a Week

The Supreme Court released an interesting labor law opinion, Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) requires “covered employees” to receive overtime pay for work over 40 hours a week. Employees who work “in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” are not covered. Unfortunately, those words do not shed much light on the status of the employee, and so their status is determined through regulations requiring the putatively uncovered employee to meet three tests: The Salary Basis Test, the Salary Level Test, and the Duties Test. The Duties Test is different for individuals with income of less than $100,000. The others, “highly compensated employees,” need only meet one of the three listed responsibilities rather than all three.