The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued its long-anticipated proposed rule to increase the minimum salary requirements for the “white collar” exemptions (executive, administrative, and professional) from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Under the proposed rule, the salary level for the white-collar exemptions to apply will…
The appeal regarding the validity of the federal overtime rule will not be fully briefed until May 1, 2017, according to an order issued by the Fifth Circuit on February 22, 2017, granting an unopposed request by the Department of Justice for an extension.
When the Department of Labor first appealed the nationwide injunction issued…
In the latest round in the litigation between 21 States, led by the State of Nevada, and the Department of Labor regarding the Final Rule, the State Plaintiffs filed their appeal brief today with the Fifth Circuit, urging the Court to affirm the district court’s order, which issued a nationwide injunction blocking the rule. “As …
The Texas AFL-CIO recently filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the action filed against the Department of Labor (DOL) regarding its highly publicized regulation expanding overtime coverage. Fearing the DOL under President-Elect Donald Trump might abandon its appeal to the Fifth Circuit of a nationwide preliminary injunction issued by a Texas District…
On December 1, 2016, the Department of Labor appealed the district court’s preliminary injunction ruling. It is expected that the DOL will request the Fifth Circuit to rule on the appeal quickly, but the Fifth Circuit may not grant this request, and the appeal may not be resolved prior to January 20, 2017. If the …
The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted 246 to 177, largely along party lines, in favor of legislation which would delay the rule’s effective date by six months, from December 1, 2016, to June 1, 2017. Prior to the anticipated late night vote on the bill in the House, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced…
Following a pair of lawsuits aimed at blocking the Labor Department’s “white collar” overtime rule, House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Chair Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) introduced legislation which would delay the rule’s effective date by six months, from December 1, 2016, to June 1, 2017. The proposed legislation, entitled The Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools,…
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:
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Despite the enumerated twin goals to “update” and “simplify” the overtime regulations governing exempt status identified in the President’s original 2014 directive to the Department of Labor, a new blog post from Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez indicates that the proposed rule now submitted to the Office of Management and Budget will focus on…
The “highly compensated” regulation is designed to relax the exempt status tests for the white collar exemptions for individuals who make more than $100,000 per year in total compensation. 29 C.F.R. § 541.601(a). Nevertheless, challenges to exempt classification of such workers can arise, with the employee claiming he or she still was non-exempt based on…
