THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze, interpret and apply provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The selection of decisions spans from 2014 to the date of publication. "Enacted in 1938, the FLSA established a minimum wage and overtime compensation for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours in each workweek." Integrity Staffing, 135 S. Ct. at 516. "The Act did not, however, define the key terms 'work' and 'workweek.'" Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp., 134 S. Ct. 870, 875 (2014). Absent congressional guidance, the Supreme Court interpreted these terms broadly. Integrity Staffing, 135 S. Ct. at 516. "It defined 'work' as 'physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.'" Id. (quoting Tenn. Coal, Iron & R. Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U.S. 590, 598 (1944)). Only months after Tennessee Coal, the Court expanded the definition further, "clarif[ying] that 'exertion' was not in fact necessary for an activity to constitute 'work' under the FLSA," for "an employer, if he chooses, may hire a man to do nothing, or to do nothing but wait for something to happen." IBP, 546 U.S. at 25 (quoting Armour & Co. v. Wantock, 323 U.S. 126, 133 (1944)). "Readiness to serve may be hired, quite as much as service itself," and must therefore also be compensated. Armour, 323 U.S. at 133. In Re Amazon. Com, Inc., (6th Cir. 2017). "Congress enacted the FLSA with the goal of 'protect[ing] all covered workers from substandard wages and oppressive working hours.'" Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 567 U.S. 142, 132 S.Ct. 2156, 2162, 183 L.Ed.2d 153 (2012) (alteration in original) (quoting Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight Sys., Inc., 450 U.S. 728, 739, 101 S.Ct. 1437, 67 L.Ed.2d 641 (1981)). Among other things, the FLSA requires "employers to compensate employees for hours in excess of 40 per week at a rate of 1½ times the employees' regular wages." Id. (citing 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)). "The keystone of [this requirement] is the regular rate of compensation. On that depends the amount of overtime payments [that] are necessary to effectuate the statutory purposes. The proper determination of that rate is therefore of prime importance." Walling v. Youngerman-Reynolds Hardwood Co., 325 U.S. 419, 424, 65 S.Ct. 1242, 89 L.Ed. 1705 (1945) ("Youngerman-Reynolds"). Brunozzi v. Cable Communications, Inc., 851 F. 3d 990 (9th Cir. 2017).