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NEW WAGE AND HOUR RULE FINALIZED; EFFECTIVE 1/1/20

9/24/2019 | Articles & Alerts, Employment, Employment Law Blog, News & Resources

JUST ANNOUNCED 9/24/19 – the Department of Labor has finalized the new overtime rules, and those rules become effective on January 1, 2020.

Under the overtime rules, there is a minimum salary level which an employee must earn before that employee can be considered for one of the exemptions to overtime. Effective January 1, 2020, that minimum salary level will increase to $35,568.00 per year (or $684.00 per week). The previous levels were $23,660.00 per year or $455 per week. The Department of Labor also is making other changes to the overtime rules including (1) increasing the minimum salary needed for an employee to be exempt under the Highly Compensated Exemption and (2) expanding the types of compensation which can be included in determining whether an employee meets the new minimum salary level.

Once the new rules take effect on 1/1/20, employers can expect the Department of Labor to increase enforcement proceedings, including by random wage and hour audits. Employers should take the time now to review their employee census to see whether all of their employees are properly classified as exempt/nonexempt (and NOT salary vs. hourly), and determine whether any employees will be affected by the rule change. Employers who need to make changes to their overtime classifications should do so now while the laws are otherwise changing and before increased enforcement begins.

ELDI will present its Wage and Hour Update on November 14, 2019 to help employers prepare for the rule changes and review best practices for dealing with overtime issues. Please visit our Upcoming Events/Training Opportunities page at www.ELDI.legal for more information.

As always, employers with specific questions can reach our Founder, Kimberly Russell, via telephone at (610)941-2541, or by email at mailto:krussell@kaplaw.comor eldi@kaplaw.com.