(a) ``Other facilities,'' as used in this section, must be something
like board or lodging. The following items have been deemed to be within
the meaning of the term: Meals furnished at company restaurants or
cafeterias or by hospitals, hotels, or restaurants to their employees;
meals, dormitory rooms, and tuition furnished by a college to its
student employees; housing furnished for dwelling purposes; general
merchandise furnished at company
stores and commissaries (including articles of food, clothing, and
household effects); fuel (including coal, kerosene, firewood, and lumber
slabs), electricity, water, and gas furnished for the noncommercial
personal use of the employee; transportation furnished employees between
their homes and work where the travel time does not constitute hours
worked compensable under the Act and the transportation is not an
incident of and necessary to the employment.
(b) Shares of capital stock in an employer company, representing
only a contingent proprietary right to participate in profits and losses
or in the assets of the company at some future dissolution date, do not
appear to be ``facilities'' within the meaning of the section.
(c) It should also be noted that under Sec. 531.3(d)(1), the cost of
furnishing ``facilities'' which are primarily for the benefit or
convenience of the employer will not be recognized as reasonable and may
not therefore be included in computing wages. Items in addition to those
set forth in Sec. 531.3 which have been held to be primarily for the
benefit or convenience of the employer and are not therefore to be
considered ``facilities'' within the meaning of section 3(m) include:
Safety caps, explosives, and miners' lamps (in the mining industry);
electric power (used for commercial production in the interest of the
employer); company police and guard protection; taxes and insurance on
the employer's buildings which are not used for lodgings furnished to
the employee; ``dues'' to chambers of commerce and other organizations
used, for example, to repay subsidies given to the employer to locate
his factory in a particular community; transportation charges where such
transportation is an incident of and necessary to the employment (as in
the case of maintenance-of-way employees of a railroad); charges for
rental of uniforms where the nature of the business requires the
employee to wear a uniform; medical services and hospitalization which
the employer is bound to furnish under workmen's compensation acts, or
similar Federal, State, or local law. On the other hand, meals are
always regarded as primarily for the benefit and convenience of the
employee. For a discussion of reimbursement for expenses such as
``supper money,'' ``travel expenses,'' etc., see Sec. 778.217 of this
chapter.
