Opinion ID: 660190
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Professional Employee Exemption

Text: 66
67 The district court also held that the reporters were not exempt as professional employees under Sec. 13(a)(1). We believe the district court was correct. Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA provides that minimum wage and hours requirements of the FLSA do not apply to any employee employed in a bona fide ... professional capacity. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 13(a)(1). The Department of Labor (DOL) regulations outline three types of professionals: learned, artistic, and teachers. If newspaper reporters are professionals at all, they must come within the scope of the definition for artistic professionals. 15 68 The DOL has issued regulations that provide a framework for applying the exemption for artistic professionals. These regulations outline both long and short tests for artistic professional status. See 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.3(a)-(e) (long test); 29 C.F.R. Secs. 541.3(e) and 541.315 (short test). The long test applies to employees salaried below $250 per week. It has many requirements, set forth in Sec. 541.3(a) through (e), the most important being 1) that the primary duty of the employee be work that is original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor and 2) the result of which depends primarily on the invention, imagination or talent of the employee. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.3(a)(2). The short test applies to employees salaried at more than $250. 16 This is a simpler and more inclusive test which requires only that the employee's primary duty consist of work requiring invention, imagination, or talent in a recognized field of artistic endeavor. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.3(e). The short test does not require work that is original and creative in character. While the tests are not all that different, it seems clear that any employee who is not a professional under the short test will not be one under the long test. 69 The district court did not distinguish between the Gateway reporters who made more than $250 per week and those who made less than $250 and, as a result, improperly applied the long test to five Gateway reporters who made more then $250 per week. We do not think that this mistake requires us to reverse the district court, however. Because we believe that none of the Gateway reporters would be considered professionals even under the short test, we affirm the district court's ruling on the Gateway reporters--both with respect to those that made more than $250 per week and those that made less. 70
71 The short test requires us to determine: (a) the employee's primary duty; and (b) whether the performance of that duty requires either invention, imagination, or talent. This test, when applied in light of the DOL interpretations, 17 excludes the Gateway reporters from being professionals within Sec. 13(a)(1). 72
73 The DOL interpretations of the professional employee exemption adopt the definition of primary duty found in the interpretations of a completely different exemption, the executive exemption, 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.103. Section 541.103 provides that, as a general rule of thumb, primary duty means a duty at which an employee spends the major part, or over 50% of his or her time. Of course, time is not the sole factor to consider. Other factors include the importance of the duties when compared to other types of duties, the frequency with which the employee exercises discretionary powers, freedom from supervision, and pay relative to other employees. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.103. See, e.g., Guthrie v. Lady Jane Collieries, Inc., 722 F.2d 1141, 1145 (3d Cir.1983); Western Union, 621 F.2d at 1252. 74 The district court found, and the record shows, that the reporters spent over 50% of their time rewriting press releases, attending municipal, school board and city council meetings, interviewing people, answering phones, and typing wedding announcements, school lunch menus, business reviews, real estate transactions, and church news. The court found that most articles were either recast press releases issued under headings such as what's happening, church news, school lunch menus, and military news or information taken from the police blotter, obituaries or real estate transaction reports. Based on these findings, the district court found that the Gateway reporter's job was predominantly to fill pages by gathering facts about routine community events and reporting them in a standard format. That finding is not clearly erroneous. 75
76 We do not believe that the Gateway reporters' primary duty required invention, imagination, or talent as those terms are used in the DOL regulations. As the DOL interpretations indicate, only a minority of reporters engage in work that depends on invention, imagination or talent: [T]he majority of reporters do work which depends primarily on intelligence, diligence, and accuracy. It is the minority whose work depends primarily on 'invention, imaging, or talent.'  29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.303(d). 18 We believe that the Gateway reporters are like the majority of reporters: although their fact gathering duties require intelligence, diligence and accuracy, such duties do not require invention, imagination or talent. 77 The bread and butter work of the Gateway reporters--even those making more than $250--is to collect information that is by and large already out in the community and just needs to be combined into a single source. The Gateway reporters follow up on press releases, attend meetings, interview local officials and record in their articles what they have found. This work does not require any special imagination or skill at making a complicated thing seem simple, or at developing an entirely fresh angle on a complicated topic. Nor does it require invention or even some unique talent in finding informants or sources that may give access to difficult-to-obtain information. In our view, the district court correctly understood that, although occasionally the reporters may have done creative work, their day-to-day duties were routine fact gathering, work that could be done with general manual or intellectual ability and training. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.3(a)(2). Based on these findings, which are not clearly erroneous, we hold that the conclusion that the reporters covered under the short test are nonexempt follows as a matter of course. 78 By describing the Gateway reporters' duties as fact gathering, we do not mean that all gathering of facts is necessarily nonexempt work. The regulations and the interpretations are not so categorical. See Sherwood v. Washington Post Inc., 677 F.Supp. 9, 14 (D.D.C.1988), rev'd on other grounds, 871 F.2d 1144 (D.C.Cir.1989). But we believe that the type of fact gathering done by the Gateway reporters is not the type of fact gathering that demands the skill or expertise of an investigative journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer or Washington Post, or a bureau chief for the New York Times. Cf. id. 79 In sum, while the reporters for Gateway certainly work in a medium in which creativity is possible, it does not mean that their work is artistic within the meaning of Sec. 541.3. After all, if we were to find that the Gateway reporters are in the minority of reporters whose primary duty requires invention, imagination or talent, it is hard to see what reporters would be left in the majority. We are therefore satisfied that the district court properly held that the Gateway reporters were not professionals within the meaning of Sec. 13(a)(1). 19 IV. BACK WAGES TO NON-TESTIFYING EMPLOYEES 80 Because the district court found that at trial some of the Gateway papers were exempt under the small newspaper exemption, and some were not, it was important for it to determine which reporters worked for which papers. Unfortunately for the Secretary, the evidence that was introduced to prove the amount of back wages owed to the reporters did not indicate for which papers the non-testifying reporters worked. Since the court had no way of knowing which of the non-testifying reporters had worked for the non-exempt papers, it could not determine which non-testifying reporters were covered by the exemption and which were not. As a result, it awarded back wages only to those reporters who had testified at trial. 81 Since we have decided that all of the Gateway newspapers are outside the scope of the small newspaper exemption, it is less crucial to know which reporters worked for which newspaper in order to determine what back pay should be awarded. However, it is important to know what amount of back pay is due. Unfortunately, the record in this case is meager, and the Secretary produced evidence of patterns of conduct at the different geographical groups in only an oblique way. 82 The Secretary did present the testimony of 22 out of 70 employees for whom back wages were sought. All of these employees gave virtually identical testimony about the pattern and practice of hours worked at Gateway. The Secretary also provided the wage calculations of the actual hours worked by a number of employees, and the back wages owed. At least one employee from each geographical group testified about the patterns and practices of hours worked. But it is not clear whether all of these employees were reporters. In addition, of the 22 testifying employees, less than half indicated the papers to which they were assigned. It is also difficult to glean from the record how much extra time these reporters spent at work in order to estimate the back wages due. 83 The Secretary's burden in these cases, however, is merely to present a prima facie case. Indeed, it is settled that the burden (with respect to a given employee) is met if it is proved that the employee has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if the employee produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference. Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 687-88, 66 S.Ct. 1187 (1946); Selker Bros., 949 F.2d at 1297-98. If the employer fails to produce adequate records about the employee's wages and hours, the court may then award damages to the employee even though the result may only be approximate. Selker Bros., 949 F.2d at 1297-98. 84 In addition, the Secretary did not have to bring every employee seeking back wages to court to testify. Courts commonly allow representative employees to prove violations with respect to all employees. Mt. Clemens Pottery, 328 U.S. at 680, 66 S.Ct. at 1187 (8 out of 300 employees testified); McLaughlin v. Ho Fat Seto, 850 F.2d 586 (9th Cir.1988) (5 out of 28), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1040, 109 S.Ct. 864, 102 L.Ed.2d 988 (1989); Donovan v. Williams Oil Co., 717 F.2d 503 (10th Cir.1983); Donovan v. Simmons Petroleum Corp., 725 F.2d 83, 86 (10th Cir.1983) (testimony of twelve employees sufficient to support an award for all former employees); Donovan v. New Floridian Hotel, Inc., 676 F.2d 468 (11th Cir.1982) (23 out of 207 receiving an award; award denied to 56 non-testifying employees); Brennan v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 482 F.2d 825 (5th Cir.1973) (16 out of 26); McLaughlin v. DialAmerica Marketing, Inc., 716 F.Supp. 812 (D.N.J.1989) (43 out of 393); Marshall v. Brunner, 500 F.Supp. 116 (W.D.Pa.1980) (48 out of 93), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 668 F.2d 748 (3d Cir.1982). Cf. Secretary of Labor v. DeSisto, 929 F.2d 789, 792 (1st Cir.1991) (not all employees need testify, but one out of 244 was insufficient). Thus, not all employees need to testify in order to prove the violations or to recoup back wages. Selker Bros., 949 F.2d at 1298. Rather, the Secretary can rely on testimony and evidence from representative employees to meet the initial burden of proof requirement. Id. Once the pattern is established, the burden shifts to the employer to rebut the existence of the violations [ ] or to prove that individual employees are excepted from the pattern or practice. Id. 85 The Secretary appears to have met this burden, but that is not entirely clear, and we prefer to leave that determination to the district court on remand, guided by this discussion. So we will remand to the district court to reconsider the matter. On remand, the district court should carefully scrutinize the evidence before denying or allowing back pay to the non-testifying reporters. See, e.g., New Floridian Hotel, 676 F.2d at 471-73 (the district judge carefully scrutinized the evidence upon which the awards of back pay were based, allowed back wages to 151 employees and denied back wages to 56). Although the court may rely only on the trial record, it may also supplement the record and have the Secretary present evidence of the patterns of conduct at each of the geographical groups. Representative reporters from each group could testify about both hours worked and hours paid. The court might also invite evidence from editors or other supervisors in each geographical group indicating hours worked and hours paid. Of course, Gateway should be given the opportunity to present evidence from payroll records that would tend to negate the inferences to be drawn from the testimony of the representative reporters.