September 30, 2025
U.S. DOL Opinion Letter Reiterates Joint Employer Liability
Are you my employer? It depends. A DOL opinion letter issued September 30th reminds us that “even if two or more entities are considered separate employers, they can nonetheless be “joint employers” under the FLSA if they have related employment relationships with the same employee(s).” What’s the implication?
If one of your employees works a second job for a company with whom you do business, and you both share some control over that employee’s work, you may be jointly and severally liable for overtime for the total hours the employee works for both employers in a workweek. The letter explains:
For example, two separate retail establishments might coordinate with each other over the pay or work schedule of the same cashier such that they are joint employers. In this scenario, if the cashier worked 30 hours per workweek for each establishment, the cashier would be entitled to 20 hours of overtime premium pay (60 total hours minus 40), which the cashier could collect from either employer.
This rule applies even if the two would-be employers are separate legal entities. Stay tuned. The DOL’s regulatory agenda indicated a new, proposed joint employer rule may be published in December!
