Page:Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt.pdf/2

2 the enterprise, directing other employees, and exercising power to hire and fire (duties test). §541.100(a). The HCE rule relaxes only the duties test, while restating the other two. As litigated in this case, whether Hewitt was an executive exempt from the FLSA’s overtime pay guarantee turns solely on whether Hewitt was paid on a salary basis. The District Court agreed with Helix’s view that Hewitt was compensated on a salary basis and granted the company summary judgment. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed, deciding that Hewitt was not paid on a salary basis and therefore could claim the FLSA’s protections. The court so held based on its examination of the two regulations that give content to the salary-basis test. The majority first concluded that a daily-rate employee (like Hewitt) does not fall within the main salary-basis provision of §541.602(a), which states:

(1) The text of §602(a) excludes daily-rate workers. An employee,