Today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that “the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard applies when an employer seeks to prove that an employee is exempt from the minimum-wage and overtime-pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).” The Court reversed the Fourth Circuit, which had affirmed the District Court’s use of the “clear-and-convincing-evidence standard” in favor of the employees, who sued their employer for failing to pay them overtime. The Court explained that “the preponderance standard is the default in civil litigation,” and that the FLSA does not specify a different standard, nor does the Constitution or any other exceptional circumstance require one. The Court rejected the employees’ policy arguments for a heightened standard and remanded the case for the lower courts to apply the correct standard to the facts.
This case will have little impact on FLSA cases litigated in the Fifth Circuit as the courts have generally applied a preponderance of the evidence standard in exemption cases.
A link to the entire opinion is here.