DOL Issues Proposed Rule on Overtime Eligibility; Comments Due November 7
Published August 30, 2023
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking
to update and revise the regulations issued under the Fair Labor
Standards Act implementing the exemptions from minimum wage and overtime
pay requirements for executive, administrative, professional, outside
sales, and computer employees.
Significant proposed revisions include:
- Increasing
the standard salary level to the 35th percentile of weekly earnings of
full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region (currently
the South)—$1,059 per week ($55,068 annually for a full-year worker)—and
increasing the highly compensated employee total annual compensation
threshold to the annualized weekly earnings of the 85th percentile of
full-time salaried workers nationally ($143,988); and
- Adding to the regulations an automatic updating mechanism that would allow for the timely and efficient updating of all the earnings thresholds.
The proposed rule would:
- Restore and extend overtime protections to low-paid salaried workers;
- Give workers who are not exempt executive, administrative or professional employees valuable time back;
- Prevent a future erosion of overtime protections and ensure greater predictability; and
- Restore overtime protections for U.S. territories.
Comments are due November 7, 2023.