Exempt Salary Threshold being reexamined, yet again
If we take a trip down FLSA minimum salary threshold memory lane, we’ll recall the Obama administration attempted to raise the former and current threshold from $23,660 to $47,476. The efforts were thwarted when a Federal judge in Texas put an injunction on the change. The threshold remains at $23,660 (the minimum amount an exempt worker must earn to be considered exempt from overtime and other FLSA requirements).
The salary threshold is just one component—workers must also fall under certain defined categories and pass additional “tests,” many of which intensely examine the actual duties of these employees.
A new overtime rule proposal is now heading to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. OMB’s regulatory office has no deadline for reviewing the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) rule, but the move indicates a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be published for public comment soon. Most likely, an NPRM will appear in March, according to Tammy McCutchen, a former DOL Wage and Hour Division administrator and principal at Littler Mendelson. McCutchen, who confirmed the news independently, expects the DOL to set a salary level in the low- to mid-$30,000s.
The regulations, which set a salary threshold for overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), have been in limbo for years. It is our hope that any decisions made give employers time to implement the new threshold, whatever it may ultimately be.