Two recent USDOL opinion letters examine the contours of the FLSA's “outside salesman” exemption, providing helpful information to employers regarding an exemption that may appear simple and straightforward at first glance.

USDOL announced that, effective July 1, it will not seek liquidated damages in FLSA investigations as a matter of course.

The USDOL has removed the infamous "20% Rule" from its Field Operations Handbook, but employers should be mindful of its disjointed approach to revisions across and within agency materials.

USDOL's recent Field Assistance Bulletin outlines the factors to be considered when the agency is evaluating independent contractor status.

Management's signing a U.S. Wage and Hour Division "Summary of Unpaid Wages" on-the-spot might complicate later challenges to the factual assumptions, reasoning, and/or legal conclusions underlying the back-wages assessed.

U.S. Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil has said that the Wage and Hour Division will not resume the practice of issuing opinion letters in response to questions about FLSA compliance.

A couple of remarks made by Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith at a December continuing-legal-education conference were especially interesting.

Recent developments underscore that the U.S. Labor Department is on the lookout for opportunities to tie together all participants in collaborative business arrangements.

The U.S. Wage and Hour Division plans to launch a Hospitality industry investigative program called the "Hotel and Motel Resort Pilot Initiative."

Industry- and sector-wide FLSA compliance initiatives were a recurring theme during a recent Washington, D.C. "Stakeholder Forum" conducted by the U.S. Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division.