Supreme Court Rules $200,000 Oil Rig Worker Eligible for Overtime

An oil rig supervisor who made more than $200,000 a year working for Houston-based Helix Energy Solutions Group is eligible for overtime pay, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision that will cost the oil and gas industry dearly.

The Court, in a 6-3 decision written by Liberal Judge Elena Kagan, held that because rig chief Michael Hewitt was receiving a $963 daily wage rather than a salary, the overtime pay waiver under federal wage law for highly paid workers It does not work. contact him.

The judges upheld the 2021 decision of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that Helix must face Hewitt’s 2017 overtime lawsuit. That lawsuit is now back to a federal judge in Houston.

The 1940 ordinance states that highly paid workers, currently defined as those earning $107,000 a year or more, will not receive overtime pay if they perform supervisory functions and receive at least $455 a week in the form of wages.

Kagan said the text of the ruling clearly states that it does not apply to employees who are paid based on how many days they work, nor is there a guaranteed minimum weekly wage.

Ed Sullivan, Hewitt’s attorney, said “my client and team are grateful to the Supreme Court for applying the plain text of the law to his case.”

Helix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the case, Helix was backed by oil and gas trading groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, which said in a briefing to judges that regulators in the industry routinely earn daily wages and work overtime. The ruling in Hewitt’s favor would require companies to pay overtime allowances and spark a flood of lawsuits from high-wage workers, the groups added.

Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts joined three liberal members of the court in the decision.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in a dissent, joined by fellow Conservative Judge Samuel Alito, wrote that since Hewitt was earning a set daily wage, he knew he would be paid at least that much for any week he worked. . According to Kavanaugh, this, combined with his managerial responsibilities, exempted him from paying overtime.

Conservative judge Neil Gorsuch, in a separate dissent, said Helix’s appeal should have been dismissed on procedural grounds.