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Jason is an associate at Franczek P.C. He advises employers on all aspects of employment law including workplace discrimination, health and safety, wage and hour, whistleblowing, employee handbooks, termination, and disciplinary action. Jason also counsels employers in traditional labor matters including collective-bargaining, union organizing campaigns, grievance arbitration, and matters before federal and state labor boards.

I believe most would agree, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) interpretative guidance typically provides useful insight to employers navigating often tricky wage and hour laws. This was not the case with the DOL’s decades-old guidance regarding whether an employer was a “retail or service establishment” and could claim an overtime exemption for certain employees paid on commission under Section 7(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In its interpretative guidance, the DOL created lists of industries that were either not recognized as retail establishments, or could possibly be recognized as retail establishments. In an action that should be mostly applauded by employers, the DOL recently issued a final rule withdrawing these particularly unhelpful “industry lists” and will instead evaluate every industry according to its regulations.

Continue Reading DOL Withdraws Industry Lists from its Retail or Service Establishment Exemption Interpretative Rule