No Overtime Pay for Rx Sales Reps, Supreme Court Rules
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that pharmaceutical sales representatives qualify as salespersons and thus are not entitled to overtime pay. Federal labor law exempts outside salespersons from overtime pay requirements. Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion said that although the representatives do not sell anything and instead "obtain nonbinding commitments from physicians to prescribe their employer's prescription drugs in appropriate cases," they are qualified under relevant laws as salespersons.
- "Justices Back Drug Industry on Overtime" (Liptak, New York Times, 6/18).
- "No Overtime for Drug Reps" (Kendall, Wall Street Journal, 6/19).