The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) creates an
overtime exemption for "administrative" employees as
that term is "defined and delimited from time to time
by regulations of the Secretary" of Labor. 29
U.S.C. § 213(a)(1).

The Secretary's published regulations make that
exemption employee-specific and fact-intensive; it
turns on "the type of work performed by the employee." 29 C.F.R. § 541.201; see also, eg., id.
§ 541.700(a) ("Determination of an employee's primary duty must be based on all the facts in a particular case.").

The First Circuit, however, instead applies an extratextual test called the "relational analysis," which
makes the employer's business—rather than the nature of the employee's duties as such—the dispositive
factor in determining the applicability of the exemption.

The question presented is whether this judicially
created "relational analysis" can be used to decide the
FLSA's administrative exemption, in contravention of
the Secretary's regulations.

Whether the First Circuit's 'relational analysis' improperly determines FLSA administrative exemption by focusing on employer's business instead of employee's duties