The news is everywhere: the DOL has issued its new proposal for the salary threshold for executive, administrative, and professional exemptions. Don’t panic – the announcement concerns a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The DOL still has to take public comments and prepare a final set of regulations.
The proposal (this time) is to increase the salary threshold from the current $455 per week (annualized to $23,660) to $679 per week (annualized to $35,308). If the proposal makes it to the final form, executive, administrative and professional employees who make less than $35,308 annually will no longer be “exempt.” Employers would have to pay these lower-paid employees overtime premium pay for hours worked over 40 each week. The proposed rulemaking also includes an increase for the highly compensated employee exemption from $100,000 to $147,414. Instead of proposing that the thresholds would increase automatically, the DOL is now proposing scheduling period reviews of the thresholds. The full proposal appears at https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/overtime2019-nprm.pdf
For anyone who would like to respond to the DOL’s proposals, comments will be accepted electronically or by mail. Check out the instructions at http://www.regulations.gov/
