Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

Cite as:  574 U. S. ____ (2014) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

and  indispensable  to  an  employee’s  principal  activities  if 
those  postshift  activities  are  necessary  to  the  principal
work performed and done for the benefit of the employer. 
Id., at 530.  Accepting as true the allegation that Integrity 
Staffing  required  the  security  screenings  to  prevent  em-
ployee  theft,  the  Court  of  Appeals  concluded  that  the 
screenings  were  “necessary”  to  the  employees’  primary
work  as  warehouse  employees  and  done  for  Integrity
Staffing’s benefit.  Id., at 531. 

We  granted  certiorari,  571  U. S.  ___  (2014),  and  now 

reverse. 

II
 
A 

Enacted  in  1938,  the  FLSA  established  a  minimum 
wage and overtime compensation for each hour worked in
excess of 40 hours in each workweek.  §§6(a)(1), 7(a)(3), 52
Stat.  1062–1063.    An  employer  who  violated  these  provi-
sions  could  be  held  civilly  liable  for  backpay,  liquidated 
damages, and attorney’s fees.  §16, id., at 1069. 

But the FLSA did not define “work” or “workweek,” and 
this  Court  interpreted  those  terms  broadly.    It  defined 
“work”  as  “physical  or  mental  exertion  (whether  burden-
some  or  not)  controlled  or  required  by  the  employer  and
pursued  necessarily  and  primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the
employer and his business.”  Tennessee Coal, Iron & R. Co. 
v.  Muscoda  Local  No.  123,  321  U. S.  590,  598  (1944). 
Similarly, it defined “the statutory workweek” to “includ[e]
all time during which an employee is necessarily required 
to  be  on  the  employer’s  premises,  on  duty  or  at  a  pre-
scribed workplace.”  Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 
328 U. S. 680, 690–691 (1946).   Applying these expansive
definitions,  the  Court  found  compensable  the  time  spent 
traveling  between  mine  portals  and  underground  work 
areas,  Tennessee  Coal,  supra,  at  598,  and  the  time  spent 
walking  from  timeclocks  to  work  benches,  Anderson,  su-