DOL ANNOUNCES INCREASE IN REQUIRED SALARY FOR EXEMPT EMPLOYEES
On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) which will raise the minimum salary threshold required for workers to be exempt from overtime under the “white collar” exemptions to $35,308 per year ($679 a week). This is a substantial increase from the current $23,660 salary requirement ($455 a week), but it is substantially less than the $47,476 salary proposed by the DOL under the Obama Administration. The DOL announced that the proposed increase will make more than a million more American workers eligible for overtime.
The final Rule is not expected to take effect until January 2020, but since this increase is not as dramatic as the one proposed under the Obama Administration, this increase is more likely to become final. In fact, the former Regional Enforcement Coordinator for the DOL Wage-Hour Division, Patricia A. Slate, was contacted for her thoughts on whether or not this proposed salary increase would become final, and she indicated that given all of the input already gathered by the DOL, the current proposal will likely take effect as scheduled. Of course, no one can predict whether or not a lawsuit will be filed to attempt to delay this increase, but employers are well advised to audit their pay practices with an eye to accounting for this increase in the salary requirement for exempt employees.
FYI
To help employers get ready for this change and otherwise make sure their pay practices are in order, on April 18, 2019, K&C’s 35th Annual Employment Law Update will include a workshop on wage-hour compliance. This showing will be held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center and will include a number of other timely topics. It will also feature a luncheon speaker who is a “Top Gun” employee lawyer who will let attendees know how he chooses the employers he sues. The seminar will be presented with an entertaining social media theme and one lucky attendee will win an Apple iPad Wi-Fi 32 GB at the end of the day.
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