Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional
On December 31, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that found a group of current and former Alexandria battalion chiefs were ineligible for FLSA overtime. The chiefs had challenged the City of Alexandria’s pay practices as unlawful under both federal and state wage and hour laws. In 2023, a federal district court found that the city’s pay practices were compliant with the FLSA’s “white-collar” overtime exemptions and as a result, both operational and administrative battalion chiefs were ineligible for any FLSA overtime. Shortly after that decision this appeal followed.
The battalion chiefs’ main argument in the appeal centered on how the chiefs were paid. Although the City assigned each chief an annual salary, it converted that salary into hourly rates for payroll purposes. The chiefs argued this meant they were really hourly employees, not salaried ones. Ultimately, the Fourth Circuit rejected that argument. The court emphasized that the key question is not whether an employer uses an hourly rate in its calculations, but whether the employee receives a predetermined amount of pay that does not fluctuate based on hours worked.
More specifically, the court found that the administrative chiefs were always paid at least 80 hours and the operational chiefs were always paid at least 106 hours every two week pay period. If either an administrative or an operational chief worked fewer hours, paid leave was used to ensure a guaranteed amount of bi-weekly pay. Additionally, if any of the battalion chiefs worked additional off-schedule hours, they were paid extra on top of the weekly guarantee. Because the City consistently paid this guaranteed minimum—regardless of actual hours worked—the court held that the chiefs were paid on a salary basis, even though their pay stubs showed hourly calculations.
There are several key takeaways from this important decision. First, the court noted that if a fire officer’s salary is “converted” to an hourly rate to accommodate the city’s payroll software, that does not alone defeat the employee’s status as salaried exempt. More important is whether that fire officer receives the “guaranteed minimum amount” each pay period regardless of hours worked. Next, using accrued vacation or other types of leave time to “true up” a fire officer’s pay to a guaranteed amount is permitted under federal law. Finally, and likely most important, whether a fire officer is called “salaried” or “hourly” is far less important than how they are actually paid in practice.
This decision underscores how complex firefighter pay systems can cut both ways. In fact, you need not look far to fully understand these complexities. As written in the decision:
We turn then to the facts. But buckle up, for the chiefs’ pay matrix is best summed up this way: “Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.” William Shakespeare, Macbeth act 2, sc. 3, l. 76.
Do you have questions about the complexities of Firefighter Overtime? Overtime exemptions, exceptions, and the special wage and hour rules that only apply to firefighters and other first responders? Please join us next month for FLSA for Fire Departments in Houston, TX.
FLSA for Fire Departments – Houston
Here is a copy of this ruling and some more coverage of the lower court’s findings from both FirefighterOvertime and the Fire Law Blog:
