On May 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (DOL) published four new opinion letters addressing a variety of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) questions. Below are key takeaways for employers.
1. Exempt employees may be paid for additional shifts without losing their exemption.
Many employers — particularly in health care, hospitality and other shift-based industries — have salaried-exempt employees who occasionally pick up hourly shifts in a non-exempt role. Opinion Letter FLSA 2026-5 confirms that paying an hourly rate for that extra work does not jeopardize the exemption, provided two conditions are met: The employee’s primary duty must remain exempt work, and the employee must continue to receive the full guaranteed salary each week regardless of scheduling. The additional hourly pay is treated as permissible “additional compensation” under the regulations and is not a threat to the salary basis. Employers using this structure should document it and confirm the exempt role consistently predominates.
2. Certain bonus payments to nonexempt employees do not require overtime recalculations.
When non-exempt employees who work overtime receive a non-discretionary bonus, such as on a quarterly or annual basis, employers must normally go back and recalculate each employee’s “regular rate of pay” for every workweek in the bonus period and pay any additional overtime premium attributable to the bonus, which can be a time-consuming exercise. Opinion...
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. 2 min After a monthlong lull in hostilities, the United States launched fresh airstrikes on I...