{"id":238,"date":"2008-12-01T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T20:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/?p=238"},"modified":"2008-12-01T16:48:14","modified_gmt":"2008-12-01T20:48:14","slug":"us-department-of-labor-issues-opinion-letter-on-eleemosynary-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/2008\/12\/us-department-of-labor-issues-opinion-letter-on-eleemosynary-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"US Department of Labor Issues Opinion Letter on Eleemosynary Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">The US Department of Labor recently issued Administrator signed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dol.gov\/esa\/whd\/opinion\/FLSA\/2008\/2008_09_29_08_FLSA.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Opinion Letter FLSA2008-8<\/a>. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This Opinion Letter discusses which revenues of a non-profit shelter for homeless animals count toward \u201cthe $500,000 threshold for enterprise coverage under \u00a73(s)(1)(A) of the FLSA\u201d. Revenue for the shelter comes from the following four sources:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in;\" type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Cash donations<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Fees for adoptions and spay\/neuter certificates<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Membership dues<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Interest and dividends<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">FLSA provides coverage in two ways\u2014enterprise coverage and individual coverage. Among other activities, enterprise coverage applies to enterprises with \u201csales made or business done\u201d of $500,000 or more and two or more employees engaged in commerce or the production of goods for commerce. Since the US Department of Labor has generally held that income from eleemosynary activity does not count toward the $500,000 threshold, the shelter income from donations or dues would not be included in the calculation. Since services for adoptions and spay\/neuter certificates are for a \u201cbusiness purpose\u2026in competition with other businesses\u201d they do not qualify as eleemosynary activities. Interest and dividends must also be counted toward the $500,000 threshold. Since the revenue of the shelter from these sources was less than $500,000, employees of the enterprise do not qualify for coverage under FLSA enterprise coverage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Employees may still be covered under FLSA individual coverage for \u201cany workweek in which they are engaged in interstate commerce, the production of goods for commerce, or activities closely related to and directly essential to the production of goods for commerce.\u201d Examples given include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in;\" type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Making or receiving interstate telephone calls<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Shipping materials to another state<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Transporting persons to another state<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">Transporting property to another state<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 6pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">The Opinion Letter states that the US Department of Labor does not require coverage for employees who only occasionally spend \u201can insubstantial amount of time performing\u201d such work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact <a href=\"mailto:info@visionpayroll.com\" target=\"_blank\">Vision Payroll<\/a> if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Department of Labor recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2008-8. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This Opinion Letter discusses which revenues of a non-profit shelter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[477,154,594,595,82,47,593,151,89],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}