There’s been plenty of press this week regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed rules governing employer treatment of tips. Commentators are debating whether the proposed changes are a sensible return to the four corners of the Fair Labor Standards Act or a cash-grab for the restaurant industry at the expense of workers. We’ll leave
New Exemption Rules Blocked – Now What?
Yesterday, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas dealt employers yet another surprise in this season of upsets with its decision in State of Nevada v. U.S. Department of Labor, halting the implementation of the DOL’s new FLSA overtime exemption rules, which were set to take effect December 1,
DOL Exemption Rules Enjoined
Well folks, looks like all that work we did to get ready for the new exemption rules taking effect 12/1 was just for fun. A federal court just blocked the rules from taking effect nationwide. This is just in so we haven’t had a chance to digest the opinion yet, but here it is if
New Rules Announced: $47,476 Minimum Salary, Effective 12/1/2016
Late yesterday the White House and Department of Labor released key details of the new FLSA overtime exemption rules for white collar workers. The final rules themselves have just been released this morning. We are still digesting 500-plus page
Details of New Overtime Exemption Rules Begin To Emerge
Bloomberg BNA is reporting (subscription required) that according to a “source familiar with the situation,” the DOL’s new overtime exemption rules will take effect on December 1. The new minimum salary for exempt executive, administrative and professional employees will be $913 per week or $47,476 per year. That’s still more than double the current $455
DOL OT Exemption Rules DOA? Federal Wage Theft Legislation? Probably Not …
In a move that should surprise precisely no one
who has been paying attention to current U.S. politics, GOP lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate introduced legislation to block the U.S. DOL’s anticipated overtime exemption rules, just two days after the DOL sent the final rule to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB review is typically the final stage before publication of a new rule.
The legislation, dubbed the “Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act,” would:
- Void the DOL’s new rules;
- Allow the DOL to publish updated rules only after conducting a detailed analysis of the rules’ impact on small business, non-profit and public employers;
- Bar the DOL from adopting rules that provide for automatic adjustments of the minimum salary level without going through a formal notice and comment rulemaking process;
- Require any proposed changes to the “duties” tests for the overtime exemptions to be published and subject to public notice and comment.
Continue Reading DOL OT Exemption Rules DOA? Federal Wage Theft Legislation? Probably Not …
New FLSA Exemption Rules – Coming In July?
Over the last few months we’ve been asked on an almost daily basis when the DOL will be publishing its hotly anticipated white collar exemption rules. The short answer is still, we don’t know. A few months ago, the word was “late 2016,” which made some sense due to the extremely high volume of
Many Home Companionship Workers No Longer Exempt
Agencies and other third-party employers of live-in household employees and home companionship providers, take note: the long-delayed regulations reclassifying many of these workers as non-exempt employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA are now in effect.
Since 1974, the FLSA has included an exemption for certain categories of domestic service workers, including
DOL Will Not Extend Comment Period on Proposed Regulations
In July, we wrote about the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to the regulations governing the white collar exemptions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The current regulations governing these exemptions—executive, administrative, and professional—include a salary basis test by which to determine if an employee meets one of these exemptions. The salary basis test currently
Wage and Hour Basics Series: The “Fee Basis” and the Proposed FLSA Regulations
As we have discussed in the past, to be eligible for one of the “white collar” exemptions (executive, administrative, or professional) or as a highly compensated employee (HCE), Section 541.600 of the FLSA regulations requires employers to compensate employees on a salary basis (currently $455 for white collar exemptions, but likely rising to around