9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that employer per diem payments may function as wages rather than reimbursement for purposes of calculating an employee’s overtime rate of pay in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Plaintiffs worked as traveling clinicians for Defendant’s healthcare staffing company.  In addition to receiving designated hourly wages, Plaintiffs also received a weekly per diem benefit, which Defendant claimed was provided as a reasonable reimbursement for work-related expenses while traveling, thus were not wages.  Plaintiffs sued Defendant, claiming that their weekly per diem benefits operated as wages and were improperly excluded...