Page:Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt.pdf/14

10 the Court of Appeals put the point, the “concept of ‘salary’ ” is linked, “[a]s a matter of common parlance,” to “the stability and security of a regular weekly, monthly, or annual pay structure.” 15 F. 4th, at 291. Take away that kind of paycheck security and the idea of a salary also dissolves. A worker paid by the day or hour—docked for time he takes off and uncompensated for time he is not needed—is usually understood as a daily or hourly wage earner, not a salaried employee. So in excluding those workers—once again, because they do not receive a preset weekly salary regardless of the number of days worked—the salary-basis test just reflects what people ordinarily think being “salaried” means.

Helix primarily responds by invoking §602(a)’s statement that an employee (to be salaried) must “receive[ ] each pay period on a weekly[] or less frequent basis” a preset and non-reducible sum. At first glance (and actually, see below, on second too), that language just confirms everything already shown: An employee must be paid on a “weekly [or biweekly or monthly] basis,” not on a daily or hourly one. Or said more fully, the “basis” in that phrase is the unit of time used to calculate pay, and that unit must be a week or less frequent measure; it cannot be a day, or other more frequent measure, as it was for Hewitt. See Webster’s New International Dictionary, at 225, 227 (defining “basis” and “base” as the “foundation” of a thing, “thus, a price used as a unit from which to calculate other prices”). But Helix contends that the single word “receives” converts §602(a)’s focus: In saying that an employee must “receive[]” a fixed amount on a weekly or less frequent basis, the provision mandates only that he get his paycheck no more often than once a week (which of course most employees do). See Brief for Petitioners 26. Because Hewitt’s paycheck came every two weeks, and because that check always contained pay exceeding $455 (the salary level) for any week he had worked at all, Helix concludes that Hewitt was paid, under