Suffer or permit to work definition
Suffer or permit to work means knowing or having reason to know that work is being performed.144 The United States Supreme Court has held that the phrase “suffer or permit to work” is “the broadest definition [of employ] that has ever been included in any one act,” and that a “broader or more comprehensive coverage of employees within the stated categories would be difficult to frame.”145 The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has held in the FLSA context that “[t]he ‘striking breadth’ of [the term ‘employ’] ‘stretches the meaning of “employee” to cover some parties who might not qualify as such under a strict application of traditional agency principles.’”146 The purpose of such a broad definition is “to prevent the circumvention of the [FLSA] or any of its provisions through the use of agents, independent contractors, subsidiary or controlled companies, or home or off-premise employees, or by any other means or device.”147 The Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals have several times since reaffirmed the holding that “suffer or permit to work” is the broadest possible definition of the term “employ.”148