A unanimous Supreme Court recently clarified the burden of proof an employer must meet to establish that an employee is exempt from the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Prior to this decision, some courts had imposed a more difficult clear-and-convincing standard of proof. But, the Supreme Court made clear that the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard of proof applies.
It has long been established that the employer bears the burden of proving that any employee it classifies as exempt from the overtime pay requirements meets all the requirements of the applicable exemption. But courts had imposed differing standards for evaluating the proof burden that an employer had to meet. With this decision, a positive development for employers, the Supreme Court ruled that an employer must show only that it is more likely than not that an employee meets the applicable exemption.
As a reminder, certain workers can be classified as exempt from the overtime pay requirements of the FLSA if their work duties meet applicable requirements and, for some exemptions, if they also are paid a guaranteed salary over a certain statutory threshold.
Following this decision, although the burden still remains with the employer, employers now have a clear and easier standard to meet across the country.
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