McGuire

Plaintiff-Appellants, past and present battalion chiefs in the City of Portland’s Fire Bureau, sued the city for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-19 (1994) (“FLSA”). Earlier proceedings resulted in a remand for reconsideration in light of Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452 , 117 S.Ct. 905 , 137 L.Ed.2d 79 (1997). The district court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment, and the battalion chiefs again appeal. We affirm.

The only remaining issue in this case is whether the plaintiffs fall within the FLSA’s overtime exemption for executive and administrative employees. See 29 U.S.C. § 213 (a)(1) (1994). The question turns on the correct application of the “salary basis” test, codified at 29 C.F.R. § 541.118 (a) (1998) and recently clarified by the Supreme Court in Auer v. Robbins. The relevant facts are not in dispute; the dispute is about the legal effect of the facts.

Although the City acknowledges that under the FLSA, employees ordinarily must be paid one and one-half times their normal hourly wage for hours exceeding 40 hours worked in one week, the City argues that the Chiefs fall into one of the limited FLSA exemptions, inasmuch as the…