According to a report from Bloomberg BNA, unnamed DOL staffers have stated that the salary threshold in the hotly anticipated FLSA exemption rules will be about $47,000 per year, down slightly from the $50,440 level suggested by the proposed rules published last summer. This is not an official announcement, so while the statement may well
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 Exemption Rules May Be Delayed To Late 2016
Waiting is the hardest part.
Ever since the Department of Labor issued its proposal to substantially increase the minimum salary level needed to classify an employee as an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee, employers have been asking when the new rules will take effect. This is not an academic question: many organizations have long
Proposed Rule Gets 264,000 Comments
Last week, we reminded you that the public comment period on the DOL’s proposed changes to the FLSA white collar exemptions was going to end on Friday, September 4, 2015, and the DOL was not going to extend this comment period despite requests to do so. True to its word, the public comment period came
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
Department of Labor Seeks Information about Employees’ Use of Smartphones
The Obama Administration used the occasion of Memorial Day weekend to release its required Semiannual Regulatory Agenda. The Agenda, which is not binding on the DOL, lists a number of items including two specifically related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). One of them is the “white collar” overtime exemption rules that we
DOL Makes It Official: New FLSA Regulations Delayed Until 2015
Back in late May, we told you that the Department of Labor had released its required Semiannual Regulatory Agenda. The Agenda, which is not binding on the DOL, included several FLSA-related items. Most importantly, the DOL listed its plans to address the “white collar” overtime exemption regulations with proposed rules next month, in
Department of Labor Sets FLSA Regulation Deadline for November 2014, Final Regulations Unlikely to Arrive Before Spring 2015
Recently, we told you that President Obama had issued a Presidential Memorandum to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) instructing its Secretary to update regulations regarding overtime protection for workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that establishes minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The regulations have not been revised at
Obama Calls for Revisions of “White-Collar” FLSA Overtime Exemptions
In an unexpected move, the Obama administration officially announced today that it will issue a Presidential Memorandum to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) instructing its Secretary to update regulations regarding overtime protection for workers under the FLSA. Any changes to the regulation would be the first since 2004, when the Bush administration increased the
Can Employees Agree to Be Exempt? [Wage & Hour FAQs]
Q. Our employees consider themselves “professionals” and don’t want to be treated as hourly workers. If our employees agree to it, can we still treat them as “exempt” even if they don’t meet all of the requirements under the FLSA or state law?
A. In a word, no. This question comes up more often than you might think. In some cases, particular industries have developed a practice of treating certain categories of employees as “salaried” and assuming that they are exempt. In others, employees would simply rather be “salaried” or “exempt” because this suggests a higher status than an “hourly” position, or because they prefer not to have to track their time.
Unfortunately for employers, an employee’s choice generally had nothing to do with whether or not the employee can legitimately be classified as “exempt” from overtime requirements under state and federal law. With very few exceptions, the rights provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act and its state equivalents can’t be waived or modified by an agreement with the employee.
So how can employers manage employee expectations without running afoul of the law? Continue Reading Can Employees Agree to Be Exempt? [Wage & Hour FAQs]