Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf
Page Number: 7

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

5 

Opinion of the Court 

tual place of performance of the principal activity or ac- 
tivities  which  such  employee  is  employed  to  perform, 
and 
“(2)  activities  which  are  preliminary  to  or  postlimi-
nary to said principal activity or activities, 
“which occur either prior to the time on any particular
workday  at  which  such  employee  commences,  or  sub-
sequent  to  the  time  on  any  particular  workday  at 
which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.”
§4, 61 Stat. 86–87 (codified at 29 U. S. C. §254(a)). 

At  issue  here  is  the  exemption  for  “activities  which  are
preliminary to or postliminary to said principal activity or
activities.” 

B 
This Court has consistently interpreted “the term ‘prin-
cipal  activity  or  activities’  [to]  embrac[e]  all  activities
which are an ‘integral and indispensable part of the prin-
cipal activities.’ ”  IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U. S. 21, 29–30 
(2005) (quoting Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U. S. 247, 252–253 
(1956)).  Our  prior  opinions  used  those  words  in  their
ordinary sense.  The word “integral” means “[b]elonging to 
or  making  up  an  integral  whole;  constituent,  component; 
spec[ifically] necessary to the completeness or integrity of 
the  whole;  forming  an  intrinsic  portion  or  element,  as 
distinguished  from  an  adjunct  or  appendage.”    5  Oxford 
English  Dictionary  366  (1933)  (OED);  accord,  Brief  for 
United  States  as  Amicus  Curiae  20  (Brief  for  United 
States);  see  also  Webster’s  New  International  Dictionary 
1290  (2d  ed.  1954)  (Webster’s  Second)  (“[e]ssential  to
completeness; constituent, as a part”).  And, when used to 
describe  a  duty,  “indispensable”  means  a  duty  “[t]hat 
cannot be dispensed with, remitted, set aside, disregarded,
or neglected.”  5 OED 219; accord, Brief for United States 
19; see also Webster’s Second 1267 (“[n]ot capable of being 
dispensed with, set aside, neglected, or pronounced nonob-