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SUMMARY:

• Employee earned $270K+ annually through hourly-based structure
• Guaranteed $800/week for 8 hours; all other time paid hourly
• Lower court ruled he was exempt from overtime under FLSA
• 6th Circuit reversed, citing Helix decision from SCOTUS
• Ruling strengthens salary basis requirements for exemption

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an employee who was guaranteed $800 pay each week for the equivalent of eight hours work, with each subsequent hour paid hourly, was misclassified as an exempt salaried worker.

Plaintiff Lynwood Pickens works as a piping inspector at a natural-gas export terminal in Texas.

Through his pay structure, Pickens – who regularly worked more than 50 hours a week for the defendant, Tennessee-based Hamilton-Ryker IT Solutions, and sometimes more than 80 hours in a week – typically earned $5,200 a week for annual earnings of more than $270,000.

Pickens asserted in a putative class action that this compensation arrangement made him a non-exempt hourly worker entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A U.S. District Court judge in the Middle District of Tennessee, however, granted summary judgment to the employer, finding that Hamilton-Ryker satisfied the salary basis test for determining if an employee is exempt from overtime by paying Pickens a fixed $800 salary on a weekly basis plus additional compensation at an hourly rate.

But the 6th Circuit reversed, relying on the U.S. Supreme...

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