New FLSA Regulations Imminent
Author: Michael Cardman, XpertHR Legal Editor
May 12, 2015
Get ready, employers. New Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations are coming soon.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) has submitted draft regulations "to modernize and streamline the existing overtime regulations" to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which reviews draft regulations before they are presented to the public at large for comment.
The OMB has 90 days from the time the draft regulations were submitted on May 5 to review the draft regulations, although the review period may be extended by the DOL or the OMB.
A post on Fisher Phillips' blog quotes US Labor Solicitor M. Patricia Smith as saying that the proposed regulations will be published no later than June 18, 2015.
Once the proposed regulations are issued, the public (including employer groups) will have somewhere between 30 and 180 days to comment. Then the DOL will respond to public comment on the proposed regulations and "make appropriate revisions" before publishing them in the Federal Register. The new regulations will formally take effect 60 days after publication.
When President Obama ordered the DOL to draft new FLSA regulations last year, he said he was concerned that "millions of Americans lack the protections of overtime and even the right to the minimum wage" because the current regulations are outdated.
The new regulations are expected to make millions of employees eligible for overtime through:
- An increase in the minimum salary level for exempt employees from the current $23,660 to somewhere between $42,000 and $50,000 (according to a former administrator of the DOL's Wage and Hour Division);
- A "bright-line" duties test; and
- Changes to the computer employee exemption and other exemptions.