DOL’s new opinion letters highlight important wage and hour compliance issues

On May 29, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued four new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) opinion letters. Two of them—FLSA2026-5 and FLSA2026-8—address questions that come up frequently for employers managing exempt classifications and timekeeping practices. Below is a summary of each.

Dual-position employees can retain exempt status

In Opinion Letter FLSA2026-5, the DOL confirms that exempt employees don’t automatically lose exempt status simply because they also work a second position for the same employer at an hourly rate. The key question remains whether their primary duties constitute exempt work. 

According to the DOL, to remain exempt, the substantial majority of an employee’s time must be spent performing exempt duties. This remains true even if some portion of the duties performed in the exempt role includes nonexempt activities, so long as those activities are “directly and closely related” to the exempt work. Employers that use employees across multiple roles should take comfort that a secondary hourly assignment will not, standing alone, defeat an otherwise valid exemption, but you should ensure the exempt duties continue to predominate.

Pre-shift work, clock-in time, and rounding policies 

Opinion Letter FLSA2026-8 addresses three common timekeeping issues: