LABOR & EMPLOYMENT
Companies Must Revisit High-Earner Compensation After the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Helix Energy By MARGARET H. ALLEN AND TAYLER G. BRAGG
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ompanies that pay highearning workers a day rate without overtime must exercise caution following the Supreme Court’s February decision in Helix Energy. The Court held that when a highearning employee’s paycheck is based
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solely on a day rate (so that the individual receives a certain amount if the person works one day in a week, twice as much for two days, and so on), the employee is not paid on a “salary basis,” as that term is used in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and is entitled to overtime pay.
NOVEMBER 2023
The case at issue involved a set of facts familiar to the oil and gas industry. A “toolpusher” who supervised 12 to 14 workers, and who earned over $200,000, sued to recover overtime. The company argued that he was exempt. The dispute turned on whether the worker BACK TO CONTENTS
