In July, we wrote about the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to the regulations governing the white collar exemptions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The current regulations governing these exemptions—executive, administrative, and professional—include a salary basis test by which to determine if an employee meets one of these exemptions. The salary basis test currently requires that an exempt employee be paid at least $455 per week (or $23,660 annually). Among other things, the proposed changes to the regulations would increase the salary test to $970 per week (or $50,440 annually) in 2016.
On August 31, 2015, the DOL reported to the House and Senate that it will not extend the 60-day public comment period for the proposed regulations, stating 60 days was sufficient to “produce a quality regulation” when coupled with the feedback received from the Department’s outreach sessions conducted before proposing the rule. As a result, the comment period is scheduled to end Friday, September 4, 2015. This will be the last chance for employers or other interested parties to make comments to be considered by the DOL and which could affect the final rules.
Following the close of the public comment period, employers can expect that the rules will likely go into effect some time in 2016. Stay tuned.
