On April 2, 2018, in a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court held that automobile service advisors are not entitled to overtime pay. Although the precise holding is of limited application because few companies outside car dealerships employ individuals as automobile service advisors, the Supreme Court’s analysis will have wide-reaching application. Departing from years of contrary thinking, the decision definitively states there is no basis for construing exemptions to the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) narrowly. This is a major victory for employers, who have long faced the frequently-intoned argument that courts must construe the FLSA’s exemptions narrowly against them.
