Employees who perform the typical job duties of a mortgage loan officer do not qualify as bona fide exempt administrative employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the first U.S. Dept. of Labor Wage Hour Division “Interpretation” declares.
Administrator Interpretations will be issued by the DOL when it determines that further clarity regarding the proper interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue is appropriate, and the Interpretations will set forth a general interpretation of the law and regulations, applicable across-the-board to all those affected by the provision in issue, DOL says.
Relying on past investigations and case law, DOL says that the typical mortgage loan officer job duties are: receiving internal leads and contact potential customers or receive contacts from customers generated by direct mail or other marketing activity; collecting required financial information from customers they contact or who contact them, including information about income, employment history, assets, investments, home ownership, debts, credit history, prior bankruptcies, judgments, and liens; run credit reports; entering the collected financial information into a computer program that identifies which loan products may be offered to customers based on the financial information provided; assessing the loan products identified and discuss with the customers the terms and conditions of particular loans, trying to match the customers’ needs with one of the company’s loan products; compiling customer documents for forwarding to an underwriter or loan processor, and may finalize documents for closings.
The DOL interpretation says these duties demonstrate that the mortgage loan officers’ “primary duty is making sales and, therefore, mortgage loan officers perform the production work of their employers.” Since a typical mortgage loan officer’s primary duty is making sales, and is not related to the management or general business operations of the employer’s customers, the position is deemed not to meet the criteria of an exempt administrative employee.
