Department officials rushed to provide a same-day response to complaints Tuesday by Washington-based LPA Inc., an association of corporate human resources executives, which said the guidance could discourage companies from offering stock options to lower-level employees.

The department said the guidance letter, written in February 1999, had been tailored to a specific circumstances presented by one company.

"There are (other) circumstances under which stock option programs would not need to be included when calculating overtime," said a letter to LPA from Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division Administrator T. Michael Kerr.

Kerr's letter did not elaborate, but invited LPA officials to meet with him to discuss the matter.

It was the second time in two weeks that the Labor Department has faced criticism for advice given to one company in guidance letters that are routinely publicly released and consulted by others.

Last week, in a controversy that lawmakers have promised to follow up with an investigation, the department withdrew a letter that told a Texas credit services firm that companies have the same safety responsibilities for employees working at home as in the office.

The stock option guidance letter responded to an unidentified corporate attorney's questions about a hypothetical stock option plan.

Workers included in the hypothetical plan would be able to choose to buy 100 shares of their company's stock at a preset price any time during a five-year period.

Labor Department officials said that under such a scenario, the company should treat the stock options as part of the worker's normal compensation — not a special bonus or profit-sharing plan. That would mean a higher base pay for the worker and therefore a higher overtime rate.

LPA, in a written complaint sent to Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, noted that a growing number of companies offering similar stock option plans to hourly wage workers don't currently count them as normal compensation.

"We recently circulated the letter among our members and those who provide such options to nonexempt (from overtime) employees are very upset with the opinion," said president Jeffrey McGuiness in LPA's complaint.