DOL Issues New Wage And Hour Opinion Letters

On June 26, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued several unrelated opinion letters dealing with non-COVID wage and hour issues.

Specifically, two of the opinion letters, FLSA2020-6 and FLSA2020-8, deal with the outside sales exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under that exemption, the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime requirements do not apply to employees: (a) whose primary duty is making sales (or obtaining contracts for services or the use of facilities); and (b) who customarily and regularly are engaged away from the employer's place of business.

In one of the new opinion letters, FLSA2020-6, the DOL found that sales employees who spent four days of a five-day workweek driving to sell goods from the truck qualified for the outside sales exemption. The DOL determined that these employees were making sales 80 percent of their time and the trucks were not a fixed place of work. Since the employees drove to various locations, they were not