Overtime Pay Mandate for Six-Figure Earners to Spur Litigation

The US Supreme Court’s recent decision that a worker making $200,000 a year still can be eligible for overtime pay is raising the question of whether Congress intended to provide such protections to highly paid employees.

Management-side attorneys conceded that the language of Labor Department regulations implementing the Fair Labor Standards Act supports the majority’s finding that the worker wasn’t paid on a salary basis, and thus is entitled to overtime pay.

But the ruling doesn’t align with the FLSA’s purpose of protecting low-wage employees working long hours for substandard wages—not professionals making six-figure salaries—they said.

“I think the opinion ...