Guidance Search
The Department of Labor provides this guidance search tool as a single, searchable location where users may search for guidance issued by any of the Department’s agencies, including significant guidance documents under Executive Order 12866. Individual guidance documents are maintained on the various agency websites, and if you know what agency you are looking for, you may also find guidance by navigating directly to that agency’s website. The Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register, which are not maintained by the Department, also include some of the Department’s interpretations of law and similar material.
The Department and its agencies issue guidance to provide clarifying information and technical assistance to the public on existing statutory and regulatory rights and obligations, inform the regulated community about best practices, and provide other useful information. The contents of these documents do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way, except as authorized by law or incorporated into a contract, cooperative agreement, or grant.
Members of the public may petition the Department to modify or withdraw specific guidance documents. To petition for a significant guidance document to be created, modified, reconsidered, or rescinded, email the Department of Labor.
Petitions to Modify or Withdraw a DOL guidance document may also be submitted by mail at the address below. Petitions should identify the specific guidance document by name and include your reason(s) for requesting withdrawal or modification.
U.S. Department of Labor
Office of the Executive Secretariat
200 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20210
Search Tips
- If you are searching using an acronym, try a second search with the acronym spelled out. For example, if you are searching for guidance related to the Davis-Bacon Act, try searching "Davis-Bacon Act" as well as "DBA".
- For more specific results, use quotation marks around phrases.
- For more general results, remove quotation marks to search for each word individually. For example, minimum wage will return all documents that have either the word minimum or the word wage in the description, while “minimum wage” will limit results to those containing that phrase.
This letter advises that handicapped individuals, who would normally qualify as clients of the workshop, may volunteer to perform tasks at the workshop which would otherwise be performed by non-client volunteers but cannot be considered volunteers when performing work that clients of the workshop would ordinarily perform. The letter emphasizes that disabled individuals must understand the voluntary nature of their work and the fact that they are free not to participate in volunteer activities, and suggests that written information about volunteer activities be made available to both the disabled volunteers and their parents or guardians at the start of the volunteer period.
This letter advises that WHD will not assert an FLSA employment relationship where children are working with their parents' consent to pay restitution; are not displacing regular workers or impinging on employment opportunities of others; and such work is performed under the jurisdiction, pursuant to the order, and subject to the protection of the court. Where no employment relationship exists, neither the pay provisions nor the child labor requirements of FLSA apply.
This letter advises that, notwithstanding the inaccessibility of the location and the fact that an employee cannot leave, time spent sleeping by youth specialist employees on an overnight camping "treck" may be properly excluded from the employees' hours worked under FLSA. However, the letter cautions that if interruptions to sleep are so frequent that the employee cannot get at least 5 hours of sleep during the scheduled sleeping period the entire period must be counted as hours worked.
This letter advises that drivers who transport goods within a single State from a storage terminal of commodities may qualify for the overtime pay exemption contained in section 13(b )(1) of FLSA, as long as the transported goods originated from out-of-state and the shipper had a fixed and persisting transportation intent beyond the terminal storage point at the time of the original out-of-state shipment.
This letter advises that the FLSA's overtime pay requirement depends on all of the hours worked in a particular workweek rather than to hours which have been averaged with hours worked in another workweek or which have been redistributed in another workweek. The letter notes that, even though employees allegedly support such an arrangement, neither an employer nor an employee has the authority to waive the FLSA's overtime pay requirement.
This letter advises that the described zoning inspector is not excluded from FLSA coverage under section 3(e)(2)(C) of the Act because the inspector is not appointed to serve on a policymaking level and is not an immediate or personal adviser to an elected official. The letter separately advises that the zoning inspector does not qualify as an exempt administrative employee under section 13(a)(1) because job duties such as investigating violations of the zoning code, reviewing applications for zoning or sign permits, and issuing permits do not require the requisite degree of discretion or independent judgment.
This letter advised how to calculate overtime pay for salaried firefighters working a 27-day work period designated under section 7(k) of the Act. The letter assumed that the annual salaries paid for firefighters constituted straight-time pay for a fixed, or scheduled number of hours in each work period, and not fixed salaries for fluctuating hours.
This letter advised that the Department takes no position as to whether persons serving as election judges, officials, or poll workers on election days are employees of the public agency which receives their services and, thus, subject to the monetary requirements of FLSA. The letter noted that the policy was adopted subsequent to the 1974 FLSA Amendments which extended FLSA coverage to most State and local government employees, and would not be changed pending further clarification of the issue or upon guidance by the courts.
This letter advised how to calculate FLSA overtime pay obligations when two employees employed by the same public agency substitute or trade work hours with each other under section 7(p)(3) of the Act.
This letter advised that the activities of the wildlife organization, as described by the requester, are not performed for a business purpose and therefore do not constitute an FLSA-covered "enterprise." The letter cautioned that employees may be individually covered under FLSA if they regularly and recurringly use the mails, the telephone or telegraph in interstate communication, or prepare, handle, or distribute published material for distribution in interstate commerce, but noted that individuals who volunteer or donate their services for public service, religious, or humanitarian objectives, not as employees and without contemplation of pay, are not considered to be employees of the religious, charitable, or nonprofit organizations which receive their services.
This button allows you to download all records in the database as of 1:00 am ET today into a CSV file. Please note that record changes made today will not be reflected until tomorrow.