CHAPTER 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS
(c) An employee who owns at least a bona fide 20 percent equity interest in the enterprise in
which he or she is employed, regardless of the type of business organization (e.g.,
corporation, partnership, or other), and who is actively engaged in its management, is
considered a bona fide exempt executive. The salary and salary basis requirements do not
apply to the exemption of business owners under 29 CFR 541.101. An individual with a 20
percent or greater interest in a business who is required to work long hours, makes no
management decisions, supervises no one and has no authority over personnel does not
qualify for the executive exemption. To qualify for the exemption, a minority owner with at
least a bona fide 20 percent interest in the business must be an employee of the business and
actively engaged in management. See 29 CFR 541.101.
15e16 Material suppliers.
(a) The manufacture and delivery to the work site of supply items such as sand, gravel, and
ready-mixed concrete, when accomplished by bona fide material suppliers operating facilities
serving the public in general, are activities not covered by DBRA. This would be so even
though the materials are delivered directly into a contractor’s mixing facilities at the work
site. Such bona fide material suppliers are not considered contractors under DBRA. Thus,
their employees are not subject to DBRA labor standards. See FOH 15b04 and FOH 15e22.
(b) A particular facility set up at or near a construction site for the purpose of fulfilling the
material requirements of a contract and thus subject to the DBRA initially, may undergo a
change in its character to such an extent that it becomes the operation of a supplier. This
would be so, for example, if it makes a sufficient quantity of sales from its producing facility
to the general public. What constitutes a sufficient quantity of sales to the general public
depends on the circumstances in each case, but must be more than mere token sales.
(c) If a material supplier, manufacturer, or carrier undertakes to perform a part of a construction
contract as a subcontractor, its laborers and mechanics employed at the site of the work
would be subject to DBRA in the same manner as those employed by any other contractor or
subcontractor. Employees of a material supplier who are required to perform more than an
incidental amount of construction work in any workweek at the site of work would be
covered by the DBRA and due the applicable wage rate for the classification of work
performed. This would include warranty and/or repair work. For example, if an employee
of a supplier of precast concrete items is required to go to the project site to repair and clean
such items and in so doing performs more than an incidental amount of construction activity
on the contract, the individual would be subject to DBRA. Similarly, an employee of an
equipment rental dealer or tire repair company who performs on-site repair work on leased
equipment is subject to DBRA if the employee performs more than an incidental amount of
work on the site. For enforcement purposes, if such an employee spends more than 20
percent of his/her time in a workweek engaged in such activities on the site, he/she is DBRA
covered for all time spent on the site during that workweek.
(d) 29 CFR 5.2(l) specifically excludes from the definition of “site of the work” permanent
fabrication plants, batch plants, borrow pits, job headquarters, tool yards, etc., of a
commercial supplier or materialman that are established by a supplier of materials for the
project before opening of bids and are near to but not on the actual project site, even where
such operations for a period of time may he dedicated exclusively, or nearly so, to the
performance of a contract. See FOH 15b04(b) and 29 CFR 5.2(l).
15e17 Owner-operators of trucks and other hauling equipment.