(a) Section 548.3(d) authorizes as established basic rates:
The rate or rates which may be used under the Act to compute
overtime compensation of the employee but excluding the cost of meals
where the employer customarily furnishes not more than a single meal per
day.
(b) It is the purpose of Sec. 548.3(d) to permit the employer upon
agreement with his employees to omit from the computation of overtime
the cost of a free daily lunch or other single daily meal furnished to
the employees. The policy behind Sec. 548.3(d) is derived from the
Administrator's experience that the amount of additional overtime
compensation involved in such cases is trivial and does not justify the
bookkeeping required in computing it. Section 548.3(d) is applicable
only in cases where the employer customarily furnishes no more than a
single meal a day. If more than one meal a day is customarily furnished
by the employer all such meals must be taken into account in computing
the regular rate of pay and the overtime compensation due. 12
In a situation where the employer furnishes three meals a day to his
employees he may not, under Sec. 548.3(d), omit one of the three meals
in computing overtime compensation. However, if an employer furnishes a
free lunch every day and, in addition, occasionally pays ``supper
money'' 13 when the employees work overtime, the cost of the
lunches and the supper money may both be excluded from the overtime
rates.
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12 See Sec. 531.37 of this chapter.
13 See Sec. 778.217(b)(4) of this chapter.
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[20 FR 5682, Aug. 6, 1955, as amended at 21 FR 338, Jan. 18, 1956]
