The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released three new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the person or entity that requested the letter.

The opinion letters issued were:

• FLSA2020-3: Addressing excludability of longevity payments from the regular rate of pay;
• FLSA2020-4: Addressing excludability of referral bonuses from the regular rate of pay; and
• FLSA2020-5: Addressing excludability of an employer’s contributions to a group term-life insurance policy from the regular rate of pay.

All three of the opinion letters published today provide further clarity on the department’s recently announced Final Rule on FLSA regular rate requirements, which allows employers to more easily offer perks and benefits to their employees.

The public can search for existing opinion letters by keyword, year, topic and a variety of other filters on the department’s website. The department also encourages the public to submit requests for opinion letters to WHD to obtain an opinion or to determine whether existing guidance already addresses their questions. The division exercises its discretion in determining whether and how it will respond to each request.