Court Opinion

ID: 9499363
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:46:30.278396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:27.741549
License: Public Domain

*133GREGORY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
I agree that this Court should affirm the judgment below because Tammy Steelman has not proven that she is an employee for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). I am not however of the view that the inquiry here concerns interference with or interpretation of the parties’ domestic relationship.
Simply stated, Steelman’s FLSA claim fails because there is no evidence that she “work[ed] in contemplation of compensation” — whether in the form of wages or benefits — for her labor. Tony & Susan Alamo Found, v. Sec’y of Labor, 471 U.S. 290, 306, 105 S.Ct. 1953, 85 L.Ed.2d 278 (1985). Rather, as the facts recounted by the majority show, Steelman worked to build a business with Michelle Hirsch, without regard to any precise compensation for the precise hours she labored at Hair of the Dog. She worked for her and Hirsch’s shared advantage — “for their future,” as Steelman testified. Cf. Walling v. Portland Terminal Co., 330 U.S. 148, 152, 67 S.Ct. 639, 91 L.Ed. 809 (1947) (denying that such scenario constitutes employment). Moreover, she described a financial arrangement that became the best evidence that she and Hirsch had not made the “Farms’ length,” “bargained-for exchange of labor for mutual economic gain” that typically occurs in employment relationships. Harker v. State Use Indus., 990 F.2d 131, 133 (4th Cir.1993) (emphasis added). For this reason, I concur in the judgment.