Page:Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt.pdf/12

8 The answer is no: Helix did not pay Hewitt on a salary basis as defined in §602(a). That section applies solely to employees paid by the week (or longer); it is not met when an employer pays an employee by the day, as Helix paid Hewitt. Daily-rate workers, of whatever income level, are paid on a salary basis only through the test set out in §604(b) (which, again, Helix’s payment scheme did not satisfy). Those conclusions follow from both the text and the structure of the regulations. And Helix’s various policy claims cannot justify departing from what the rules say.

Consider again §602(a)’s text, focusing on how it excludes daily-rate workers. An employee, the regulation says, is paid on a salary basis if but only if he “receive[s] the full