Gieg

In these three appeals —Gieg v. DDR, Inc., Wickersham v. Haselwood Buick-Pontiac Co., and Chaloupka v. SLT/TAG, Inc. —arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., the principal question we are asked to determine is whether finance and insurance managers of retail automobile dealerships, who are compensated almost exclusively by commission, are entitled to overtime pay for hours worked beyond the standard 40-hour workweek pursuant to section 7(a) of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. § 207 (a). Section 207(a) provides that, with certain exceptions, employers in interstate commerce must pay employees overtime of at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for any time worked in excess of 40 hours a week. Section § 207(i), however, exempts employers from paying overtime to “any employee of a retail or service establishment” if the employee’s regular rate of pay is more than one and one-half times the statutorily prescribed minimum wage and if “more than half his compensation for a representative period (not less than one month) represents commissions on goods or services.” The three appeals— two from the District Court of Oregon, and one from the…