I have blogged many times about the rash of intern cases that have popped up over the last few years. Now maybe there will be a consistent, uniform test for determining whether interns are really statutory “employees.” The US Department of Labor has endorsed such a test. The agency is approving the so-called “primary beneficiary” standard.

The agency has endorsed a seven-part test for determining intern status. This was set forth in the Second Circuit decision in the 2015 ruling in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. That test analyzes the “economic reality” of interns’ relationship with the putative employer to ascertain who is the primary beneficiary of the relationship. This test has been applied in a number of cases and industries of industries, where courts have found that, as the primary beneficiaries of these internships, the individuals are not employees under the FLSA and therefore cannot file claims for misclassification and wage violations.

The agency noted that four federal appellate courts have rejected the six-part DOL test set forth almost a decade ago. The agency issued a statement asserting that the “Department of Labor today clarified that going forward, the department will conform to these appellate court rulings by using the same ‘primary beneficiary’ test that these courts use to determine whether interns are employees under the FLSA. The Wage and Hour Division will update its enforcement policies to align with recent case law, eliminate unnecessary confusion among the regulated community, and provide the division’s investigators with increased flexibility to holistically analyze internships on a case-by-case basis.”

Under the “old” test, an intern is an employee unless all of the six factors were satisfied. These included whether the intern displaced a regular employee and whether the employer derived any “immediate advantage” from the intern’s work. The updated test now restates the seven non-exhaustive factors that constituted the Glatt test. Those include: 1) whether there’ exists a clear understanding that no expectation of compensation exists; 2) whether interns receive training similar to what they would receive in an educational environment; and, 3) to what extent the internship is tied to a formal education program. The agency specifically noted that the primary beneficiary standard is “flexible,” and that determinations on intern-employee status hinge upon the unique circumstances of each case.

The Takeaway

I believe this is a better, fairer, more realistic test. Is it, as I postulated, “definitive guidance?”We will see…