A. The FLSA and the DOL’s Implementing Regulations. The FLSA establishes a general presumption that entitles all workers to time-and-a-half overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. See 29 U.S.C. § 207(a). The FLSA creates a number of exemptions, however, for certain types of workers for whom different numbers of hours apply before overtime must be on activities or the manner in which EMS workers may be brought within the § 207(k) exemption, the DOL’s implementing regulations provide this analysis. See 29 C.F.R. §§ 553.201-553.215. As with all agency rules, the DOL’s regulations implementing the FLSA are accorded Chevron deference. See Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-82, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984) (<HOLDING>). First, the regulations fill in the gap in the
holding that when a court is asked to construe an ambiguous statute it must defer to the interpretation set out in a regulation promulgated by the agency charged with administering the statute so long as the agencys interpretation is reasonable holding that courts must defer to executive branch regulations implementing statutes so long as agencys regulation is based on a permissible construction of the statute holding that deference is owed to an agencys interpretation of its own categorical exclusion regulations so long as that interpretation is not plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation holding that courts should defer to agencys interpretation of its own regulations if not plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation holding that courts will not defer to an agencys litigating position where it contradicts the agencys prior regulations rulings or administrative practice