The Fair Labor Standards Act, Overtime Compensation, and Personal Data Assistants

Jon O. Shimabukuro
Legislative Attorney

The increased use of personal data assistants (PDAs) and smartphones by employees outside of a traditional work schedule has raised questions about whether such use may be compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As PDAs and smartphones provide employees with mobile access to work email, clients, and co-workers, as well as the ability to create and edit documents outside of the workplace, it may be possible to argue that employees who are not exempt from the FLSA’s requirements and who perform work-related activities with these devices should receive overtime if such activities occur beyond the 40-hour workweek.

This report reviews the FLSA’s overtime provisions, and examines some of the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal decisions on work. Although PDAs and smartphones provide a new opportunity to consider what constitutes work for purposes of the FLSA, the Court’s past FLSA decisions, including those involving on-call time, may provide guidance on how courts could evaluate overtime claims involving the new devices.


Date of Report: September 12, 2011
Number of Pages: 9
Order Number: R41993
Price: $19.95

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