It is rare for an employee’s salary to double with one raise, yet, under the Department of Labor’s (DOL's) proposed rule, employers will need to double some employees’ salaries to continue to pay them salaries without overtime. By now, everyone has heard of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule increasing the required weekly salary to $970 per week, or $50,440.00 annually, for employees to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime provisions under most of the “white collar” exemptions. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on July 6, 2015, and the 60-day comment period expired on September 4, 2015. Although more than 250,000 comments were submitted to the DOL, the final rule is anticipated to closely resemble the proposed rule. The Administration is expected to act fairly quickly finalizing the rule, so employers can expect the final rule to be published and the changes to be implemented in early to middle 2016.

Designed to adjust for inflation the original 1975 salary requirements, the proposed rule more than doubles the current salary requirement of $455.00 per week or $23,660.00 per year. The FLSA requires employers to pay employees who do not meet an exemption 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The proposed rule sets the new salary requirements for the executive, administrative, professional, and computer professional exemptions,1 which cover most salaried employees exempt from the FLSA's overtime provisions. To be exempt under one of the covered exemptions under the proposed rule, employees must receive a salary of at least $970.00 for each week they work and meet the exemption’s duties test.