Page:Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt.pdf/10

6 Hewitt filed this action under the FLSA to recover overtime pay. Helix asserted in response that Hewitt was exempt from the FLSA because he qualified as a bona fide executive. The dispute on that issue turned solely on whether Hewitt was paid on a salary basis; Hewitt conceded that his employment met the exemption’s other requirements (the salary-level and duties tests). The District Court agreed with Helix’s view that Hewitt was compensated on a salary basis, and accordingly granted the company summary judgment. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 83–87.

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed that judgment, deciding that Hewitt was not paid on a salary basis and therefore could claim the FLSA’s protections. See 15 F. 4th 289 (2021). The 12-judge majority first held that a daily-rate employee (like Hewitt) does not fall within §602(a) of the Secretary’s regulations. That section, the court reasoned, covers only employees whose “compensation [is] paid ‘on a weekly[] or less frequent basis,’ ‘without regard to the number of days or hours worked’ ”—the very opposite of a paid-by-the-day employee. Id., at 291. Such “daily-rate” workers, the court continued, can qualify as salaried only through the “special rule” of §604(b). Ibid. But Hewitt’s compensation did not satisfy §604(b)’s conditions; indeed, the court noted, “Helix does not even purport” to have met them. Id., at 292. The court thus concluded that Hewitt, although highly paid, was not exempt from the FLSA. Six judges dissented in two opinions. The more expansive dissent argued that Hewitt’s compensation “satisfied the salary basis test” of §602(a). Id., at 307 (opinion of Jones, J.). It further concluded that §604(b) is not applicable at all to high-income employees—i.e., those falling within the HCE rule because they earn over $100,000. See id., at 309.

We granted certiorari, 596 U. S. ___ (2022), and now affirm.