Last month, a federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval for a settlement in which Hofstra University agreed to pay up to $485,000 to a class of 256 undergraduate and graduate students who allegedly were not paid minimum wage and overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiff class included both students who the University classified as hourly employees and others who received stipends as undergraduate and graduate assistants. Because the case was settled, the court never reached a judgement as to whether the students who received stipends were "employees" entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA. That begs the question, when must a student be considered an "employee" for purposes of minimum wage and overtime?
Chapter 10 of the U.S. Department of Labor's Field Operations Handbook provides some guidance on this subject. In Section 10b18, the manual states the following...
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