TY - JOUR
T1 - A legally-informed definition of volunteering in nonprofits and social enterprises
T2 - Unpaid work meets profit motives
AU - Overgaard, Charlotte
AU - A. Kerlin, Janelle
N1 - Funding Information:
U.S. courts have continued to interpret FLSA “liberally to apply to the furthest reaches consistent with congressional direction,” which was made clear in . The Alamo Foundation is a nonprofit religious organization that “derives its income largely from the operation of commercial businesses staffed by the Foundation's “associates,” most of whom were drug addicts, derelicts, or criminals before their rehabilitation by the Foundation,” according to . cemented that religious and other nonprofit organizations are not exempt from the coverage of FLSA. This interpretation—the Court states—is supported by the legislative history and the interpretation of the DOL. also establishes that the FLSA only reaches the “the ordinary commercial activities” of the organization. By 2018, the application of the FLSA to commercial activities was no longer disputed. In fact, in , “the restaurant conceded that it is a covered enterprise under the FLSA” despite the sole shareholder being a nonprofit religious organization and despite the restaurant not generating any profits. The determining factor for being subject to FLSA is that the organization “engages in competitive commercial activity” by running a restaurant. Alamo Alamo Alamo Alamo Cathedral Buffet
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC
PY - 2022/2/1
Y1 - 2022/2/1
N2 - This paper presents a definition of volunteering that will help organizations and workers determine when U.S. organizations can legally draw on volunteer labor. By drawing on recent U.S. court cases, the intentions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to protect vulnerable workers and the wider literature on organizational logics, work, and volunteering, we demonstrate under which circumstances workers should be considered employees covered by the FLSA and therefore entitled to minimum pay, rather than volunteers. We show that in order to determine the legalities of work it is necessary, but not sufficient, to consider if activities are carried out for commercial purposes. What matters most to a legal definition is the role performed within organizations and the promises made to individual workers in terms of compensation.
AB - This paper presents a definition of volunteering that will help organizations and workers determine when U.S. organizations can legally draw on volunteer labor. By drawing on recent U.S. court cases, the intentions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to protect vulnerable workers and the wider literature on organizational logics, work, and volunteering, we demonstrate under which circumstances workers should be considered employees covered by the FLSA and therefore entitled to minimum pay, rather than volunteers. We show that in order to determine the legalities of work it is necessary, but not sufficient, to consider if activities are carried out for commercial purposes. What matters most to a legal definition is the role performed within organizations and the promises made to individual workers in terms of compensation.
KW - expectation of compensation
KW - nonprofit organizations
KW - payment
KW - social enterprises
KW - volunteering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116974322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/nml.21489
DO - 10.1002/nml.21489
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85116974322
SN - 1048-6682
VL - 32
SP - 429
EP - 447
JO - Nonprofit Management and Leadership
JF - Nonprofit Management and Leadership
IS - 3
ER -