Department of Labor Issues Guidance to Employers on FMLA and FLSA Questions

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued updated guidance to employers on how they should apply elements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The new opinions address common questions from employers related to issues such as leave, bonus payments, collective bargaining, and overtime. FEDA members can find the complete letters and associated guidance at the following links:

• FMLA2026-2: Whether FMLA leave may be used for time spent traveling to or from medical appointments, including where an employee provided the employer with medical certification from a health care provider that confirms the employee’s need for the appointment, but the certification does not address travel to or from the appointment.
• FLSA2026-1: Whether an employee’s role meets the criteria for the learned professional exemption under Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA, and, if so, whether an employer is nevertheless permitted to reclassify the employee as nonexempt.
• FLSA2026-2: Whether Section 7(e) of the FLSA permits an employer to exclude certain bonus payments from an employee’s regular rate of pay. The letter also addresses how to include these payments in the calculation of employee overtime premiums if the payments must be included in an employee’s regular rate of pay.
• FLSA2026-3: Whether a union and employer can enter into a collective bargaining agreement that mandates a 15-minute roll call before each scheduled shift but excludes that time when calculating overtime premiums under the FLSA.
• FLSA2026-4: Whether, for purposes of the overtime exemption for certain commissioned employees in Section 7(i) of the FLSA, an employer in a jurisdiction in which the state minimum wage exceeds the federal minimum wage must use the federal minimum wage, or the higher state minimum wage, to determine whether it has satisfied the minimum pay standard in Section 7(i)(1), and whether tips are deemed compensation for purposes of Section 7(i)(2)’s requirement that more than half the employee’s compensation consists of commissions.

Although the DOL letters are not binding law, courts often give them persuasive deference and may use them to understand the department’s interpretation of the law and employer compliance practices.