This morning, a divided Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision written by Justice Alito upholding decades of industry practice and finding that the Fair Labor Standards Act’s outside sales exemption applies to pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs).  The Court decided unanimously that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) amicus curiae briefs in which it first articulated its position that the outside sales exemption should not apply to PSRs should not be provided any “especially favorable weight.”

The past two weeks have brought a number of important updates for those watching the Christopher v. SmithKline case, in which the Supreme Court will determine whether pharmaceutical sales representatives are properly classified as exempt from overtime as outside salespersons under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and whether to defer to the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) position expressed in amicus briefs that they are not.