{"id":344,"date":"2009-02-17T22:14:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T03:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/?p=344"},"modified":"2009-02-17T22:14:39","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T03:14:39","slug":"us-department-of-labor-issues-opinion-letter-on-monthly-stipends-to-volunteer-firefighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/2009\/02\/us-department-of-labor-issues-opinion-letter-on-monthly-stipends-to-volunteer-firefighters\/","title":{"rendered":"US Department of Labor Issues Opinion Letter on Monthly Stipends to Volunteer Firefighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed <\/span>Opinion Letter FLSA2008-15<\/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).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This Opinion Letter reviews a plan by a fire protection district to provide monthly stipends to its volunteers. Apparently, the plan provides for the following stipends for volunteers who perform twenty-four or more hours of service per month:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$175 per month<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Firefighters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$175 per month<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Firefighters and EMTs<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$200 per month<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Traffic Control Officers<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$250 per call<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Food Service\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>25 per call<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Volunteers cannot receive compensation, but may receive a combination of \u201cexpenses, reasonable benefits, or a nominal fee.\u201d Generally, the DOL finds that a fee is nominal \u201cas long as it does not exceed 20% of the amount that otherwise would be required to hire a permanent employee for the same services.\u201d Since the district did not provide the DOL with market data to perform the 20% test, the DOL was unable to make the determination whether or not the fee was nominal. The district itself could make that determination, however, upon gathering the appropriate economic data.<\/span><\/p>\n

State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact Vision Payroll<\/span><\/a> if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2008-15. 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 reviews a plan by a fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[154,776,775,82,779,76,151,45,780,89,777],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"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=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}