A key employee is defined under 29 C.F.R. § 825.217 as a "salaried . . . employee who is among the highest paid 10 percent of all the employees employed by [an] employer within 75 miles of the employee's worksite." Under regulations promulgated pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act, an employer may deny job restoration to a key employee if restoration would result in "substantial and grievous economic injury to the operations of the employer."
See e.g., Kephart v. Cherokee County, 229 F.3d 1142 (4th Cir. 2000)
See also: 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.; Employment
[Last updated in June of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]