DOL Issues Five New Opinion Letters

By Kamer Zucker Abbott

June 26, 2020

On June 25, 2020, the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued five new opinion letters on the following issues:  

•    FLSA2020-6: Addresses whether salespeople who travel to different locations to sell products using their employer’s mobile assets qualify for the outside sales exemption from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA);
•    FLSA2020-7: Addresses whether an automobile manufacturer’s direct payments to an automobile dealership’s employee, compensating the employee for work done on behalf of the dealership, may count toward the dealership’s minimum wage obligation to the employee under the FLSA;
•    FLSA2020-8: Addresses whether salespeople who set up displays and perform demonstrations at various retail locations not owned, operated, or controlled by their employer to sell the employer’s products qualify for the outside sales employee exemption from overtime;
•    FLSA2020-9: Addresses whether emergency-management coordinators employed by a county government qualify for administrative exemptions from overtime; and
•    FLSA2020-10: Addresses the application of the retail or service commission sales exemption, where more than half of an employee’s compensation in the relevant representative period ultimately does not consist of commissions.

An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the WHD on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the individual person or entity requesting the letter. It is the administrative agency’s opinion on how the law should be applied which may be given deference by the courts.

If you have questions about these opinion letters, please contact a KZA attorney.