Salvation Army Ministers Were Exempt From FLSA Under "Ministerial Exception”
In this case the 7th Circuit held that two former ministers of the Salvation Army, whose work administering the organization's adult rehabilitation center included preaching, leading worship singing, overseeing daily devotions, teaching Bible studies, and conducting Christian living classes, as well as supervising the center's thrift shops, fell within the "ministers exception" to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime provisions.
The court found that the ministers
were not employed by the thrift shops, but by the center, which was a church;
nor were the ministers employees "engaged in ordinary commercial activities,"
but were engaged in ecclesiastical administration, as they did not wait on
thrift shop customers but, instead, circulated throughout the shops, getting to
know employees and ministering to them. Salvation through work was a religious
tenet of the organization, and so the selling and the supervision of the thrift
shops by the ministers had a spiritual dimension.
Schleicher v. Salvation Army
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.