Should Mrs. Doubtfire Have Been Paid Overtime?

It's not like I woke up in a cold sweat, fixated on this obscure bit of Fair Labor Standards Act minutiae.

But I did read this Eleventh Circuit decision last night, which did posit whether "Julie Andrews's Mary Poppins, Martin Lawrence's Big Momma, Fran Drescher's Nanny Fine, Robin Williams's Mrs. Doubtfire, or Vin Diesel's Shane Wolfe...would have been entitled to overtime pay in the real world."

So, let's find out.

"In the real world," wrote a three-judge panel for the Eleventh Circuit, "whether a nanny is entitled to overtime pay presents an important question," and "the [FLSA] governs the answer to this question."

You and I know that, under the FLSA, a nonexempt worker who works more than forty hours in a workweek is entitled to overtime compensation at time-and-a-half pay for those extra hours worked.