DOL Seeks Time to Rewrite White Collar Overtime Exceptions

    On October 30, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) appealed the federal district court decision striking down[1] the Obama-Era white collar exceptions, which proposed raising the salary level at which companies must pay overtime to employees from $23,660.00 to $47,476.00 per year.[2] The DOL plans to ask the court to stay the appeal while considering whether to re-write the overtime rule.

    Labor Secretary Alex Acosta previously indicated that the DOL was not opposed to a more modest threshold increase, in the range of an annual salary between $30,000.00 and $35,000.00. The DOJ’s request to stay the matter signals that the DOL intends to rewrite the rules. The DOL is reviewing approximately 140,000 submissions to its July 26, 2017 request for information regarding proposed changes to the overtime rule. We will continue to monitor any proposed changes to the overtime rules and to update you on any important developments.

[1] As previously explained in the Rocky Mountain Employer, [September 14, 2017 Article] in State of Nevada v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, No. 4:16-CV-731, 2017 WL 3837230 (E.D. Tex. Aug. 31, 2017), a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted summary judgment in favor of the group of plaintiffs (which included more than 50 business groups) that challenged the Final Rule. The court found that the Final Rule (which nearly doubled the floor below which overtime must be paid to executive, administrative, and professional employees from $23,660.00 annually to $47,476.00 annually) effectively eliminated the test described in the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

[2] https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/litigation.htm