DOL View of Third-Party Bonuses as Regular Pay Nixed (1)

Bonuses paid by a natural gas company to a subcontractor’s employees didn’t necessarily count as regular pay under federal overtime law, the Third Circuit ruled Aug. 20.

The Department of Labor’s interpretation otherwise required a “novel statutory interpretation” and was a mistake, the court said in a case of first impression. The lower court ruled that bonuses paid by Talisman Energy Inc. for work performed at a drilling site in Pennsylvania had to be included when calculating the overtime rate Bristol Excavating Inc. paid its employees.

Bristol didn’t consider the bonuses part of the workers’ “regular rate of pay” under ...