Advocacy

Labor Department Requests Information to Reconsider Overtime Pay Rule

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is reconsidering a 2016 rule doubling the threshold at which employers must pay salaried workers time-and-a-half for overtime work. The DOL rule raised the salary threshold required to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “white collar” exemption to $47,476 per year.

While the rule was scheduled to take effect December 1, 2016, a challenge being considered in a federal appeals court placed it on hold last November. Before the rule was revised, management, administrative and professional employees who earned a salary of more than $23,660 per year were exempt from receiving overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week. 

The rule impacts an estimated 4.2 million salaried workers. Some employers had already increased workers’ salaries or adjusted work schedules in anticipation that the rule would take effect. Before proposing changes to the 2016 rule, the DOL has first requested public feedback on issues addressed in the rule, such as whether the current threshold should be updated for inflation, and whether that threshold should consider other factors, such as employer size, industry and regional cost-of-living.

For more information, contact Stuart Gosswein at stuartg@sema.org.