Some exemptions depend on the character of the establishment by which an employee is employed. These include the ``retail or service establishment'' exemptions in sections 13(a) (2), (4), and (11) and the exemptions available to the establishments of the character specified in sections 13(a) (3), (9), and 13(b)(8) (first part). Therefore, if the establishment meets the tests enumerated in these sections, employees ``employed by'' that establishment are generally exempt from sections 6 and 7. (See Sec. Sec. 779.307 to 779.309 discussing ``employed by.'') Other exemptions establish two criteria, the character of the establishment and the nature of the conditions of the employment of the particular employee. Such exemptions are set forth in section 13(b)(8) (second part), and section 13(b)(18) and (19). To determine whether the exemptions of these sections apply it is necessary to determine both that the establishment meets the enumerated tests and that the employee is engaged in the enumerated activities or employed under the conditions specified. Thus, under section 13(b)(18) some of the employees of a given employer may be exempt from the overtime pay requirements (but not the minimum wage) of the Act, while others may not. Sec. 779.303 ``Establishment'' defined; distinguished from ``enterprise'' and ``business.''
As previously stated in Sec. 779.23, the term establishment as used in the Act means a distinct physical place of business. The ``enterprise,'' by reason of the definition contained in section 3(r) of the Act and the tests enumerated in section 3(s) of the Act, may be composed of a single establishment. The term ``establishment,'' however, is not synonymous with the words ``business'' or ``enterprise'' when those terms are used to describe multiunit operations. In such a multiunit operation some of the establishments may qualify for exemption, others may not. For example, a manufacturer may operate a plant for production of its goods, a separate warehouse for storage and distribution, and several stores from which its products are sold. Each such physically separate place of business is a separate establishment. In the case of chain store systems, branch stores, groups of independent stores organized to carry on business in a manner similar to chain store systems, and retail outlets operated by manufacturing or distributing concerns, each separate place of business ordinarily is a separate establishment.