The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has announced that it will no longer release guidance in the form of detailed opinion letters on specific fact situations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and other statutes.  Instead, the Wage and Hour Administrator will issue general interpretations (called "Administrator Interpretations") of wage and hour laws and regulations that will be useful to a more broad range of employers.  The Division believes that "this will be a much more efficient and productive use of resources than attempting to provide definitive opinion letters in response to fact-specific requests submitted by individuals and organizations, where a slight difference in the assumed facts may result in a different outcome."

In the first such Administrator Interpretation (No. 2010-1, issued on March 24, 2010), the Division concluded that employees performing the typical duties of a mortgage loan officer do not qualify as administrative employees exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  While this Interpretation does not represent a change in the way mortgage loan officers have previously been viewed under the FLSA, it may be of interest to those in the banking industry.  A full copy of Interpretation No. 2010-1 is available on the DOL’s website at http://www.dol.gov/WHD/opinion/adminIntrprtnFLSA.htm.