Before the election the Department of Labor asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to expedite its appeal regarding the validity of the DOL’s Final Rule, which increased the salary level for the white collar exemptions.  Earlier this week, however, following the inauguration of President Trump, the Department of Labor made the opposite request, asking

Since the United States Department of Labor announced its intention, in response to the President’s directive, to more than double the salary basis necessary to qualify for the “white collar” exemptions from overtime, the business community has swung into action. Employers and associations have both been lobbying for a more modest increase to the minimum

White House coverage reports that the revamped white collar exemption regulations will be released this week, and will include a salary basis requirement more than double the current federal level. Reports peg the new salary basis requirement at $50,440 per year, or $970/week, with future adjustment linked to the 40th percentile of income.

As employers prepare themselves for potentially unwelcome proposed revisions to the white collar regulations that are expected to pose operational, business and compliance challenges, we offer the following five suggestions to the Department for the purpose of assisting the agency with simplifying and streamlining the regulations consistent with the President’s directive:

  1. Address holistically the

The President’s recent directive to revise the federal wage-hour regulations includes a directive to simplify these rules.  This simplicity mandate ties in to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study analyzing the year-over-year increase in FLSA litigation.  The GAO study found that a decrease in DOL guidance regarding the law and a failure