Opinion of the Court
§602(a), on a salary basis. See ibid.[1]
But that interpretation of the “weekly basis” phrase—even putting §602(a)’s other language to the side—is not the most natural one. As just suggested, a “basis” of payment typically refers to the unit or method for calculating pay, not the frequency of its distribution. Most simply put, an employee paid on an hourly basis is paid by the hour, an employee paid on a daily basis is paid by the day, and an employee paid on a weekly basis is paid by the week—irrespective of when or how often his employer actually doles out the money. The inclusion of the word “receives” in §602(a) does not change that usual meaning. Suppose a lawyer tells a client that she wishes to “receive her pay on an hourly basis.” See Tr. of Oral Arg. 22–24. The client would understand that the lawyer is proposing an hourly billable rate, not delivery of a paycheck every hour. Or consider a nurse who says she gets paid on a daily basis. She means that she receives compensation only for the days she works—not that she collects a paycheck every day. So too here, an employee receives compensation on a weekly—as opposed to a daily or hourly—basis, as §602(a) demands, when he gets paid a weekly rate. The provision’s temporal dividing line is not about paycheck frequency.
Our reading of §602(a) also tracks how neighboring regulations use the term “basis” of payment. Over and over in the Secretary’s rules, that term means the unit or method used to calculate earnings. So, for example, one provision states that “additional compensation may be paid on any basis (e.g., flat sum, bonus payment [or] straight-time hourly amount).” §541.604(a). Another provision defines what it means to be “paid on a ‘fee basis,’ ” differentiating
- ↑ Helix offers no sensible reason—actually no reason at all—for hinging satisfaction of the salary-basis test on how often paychecks are distributed. And we cannot think of any. But we need not further stretch our powers of imagination for, as we next explain, we cannot find such a paycheck-timing notion in the rule’s text.
