Labor Department Tackles Overtime, Pre-Shift Work in Letters

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division released its latest round of opinion letters, advising employers on topics ranging from whether a worker’s meal break or pre-shift activities should be compensated to the threshold for determining overtime status for an employee.

The agency released four opinion letters Friday, signed by Wage and Hour Administrator Andrew Rogers, the latest effort to emphasize compliance assistance during the Trump administration.

In one letter, Rogers said an employee would still remain exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime rules even if they perform additional work in a secondary, non-exempt role, as long ...