One year after the U.S. Supreme Court held that courts should not use a heightened evidence standard for Fair Labor Standards Act exemption disputes, the holding is turning up in other types of cases, even if its impact is somewhat limited, attorneys said.
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"I don't know that it's going to be remembered as much for the standard for proving or establishing an exemption as much as a confirmation of the default standard for all issues in civil litigation," said Jason Reisman of management-side firm Blank Rome LLP.
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The decision put employers at ease, said Reisman, who is also the immediate past president of the Wage & Hour Defense Institute.
"When the Fourth Circuit diverged from what seemed like the uniform view of several other circuits, I think it gave employers a bit of a queasy feeling, and this Supreme Court decision certainly settled their stomachs," he said.
The ruling cemented the fact that whether in an FLSA exemption case or another situation, "if there's nothing that screams at you, 'heightened standard,' … then you revert back to our good old preponderance of the evidence standard," he said.
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"EMD Sales Impact Seen Beyond FLSA Exemption 1 Year Later," by Max Kutner was published in Law360 Employment Authority on January 16, 2026.