(a) An employee who is employed by an establishment which qualifies
as an exempt establishment under section 13(a)(2) or (4) is exempt from
the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Act even though his
employer also operates one or more establishments which are not exempt.
On the other hand, it may be stated as a general rule that if such an
employer employs an employee in the work of both exempt and nonexempt
establishments during the same workweek, the employee is not ``employed
by'' an exempt establishment during such workweek. It is recognized,
however, that employees performing an insignificant amount of such
incidental work or performing work sporadically for the benefit of
another establishment of their employer nevertheless, are ``employed
by'' their employer's retail establishment. For example, there are
situations where an employee of an employer in order to discharge
adequately the requirements of his job for the exempt establishment by
which he is employed incidentally or sporadically may be called upon to
perform some work for the benefit of another establishment. For example,
an elevator operator employed by a retail store, in performance of his
regular duties for the store incidentally may carry personnel who have a
central office or warehouse function. Similarly, a maintenance man
employed by such store incidentally may perform work which is for the
benefit of the central office or warehouse activities. Also, a sales
clerk employed in a retail store in one of its sales departments
sporadically may be called upon to release some of the stock on hand in
the department for the use of another store.
(b) The application of the principles discussed in Sec. 779.310 and
in paragraph (a) of this section would not preclude the applicability of
the exemption to the employee whose duties require him to spend part of
his week in one exempt retail establishment and the balance of the week
in another of his employer's exempt retail establishments; provided
that his work in each of the establishments will qualify him as
``employed'' by such a retail establishment at all times within the
individual week. As an example, a shoe clerk may sell shoes for part of
a week in one exempt retail establishment of his employer and in another
of his employer's exempt retail establishments for the remainder of the
workweek. In that entire workweek he would be considered to be employed
by an exempt retail establishment. In such a situation there is no
central office or warehouse concept, nor is the employee considered as
performing services for the employer's business organization as a whole
since there is no period during the week in which the employee is not
``employed by'' a single exempt retail establishment.
