Overtime Law Development

As we previously reported, the DOL recently effectively doubled (to $47,476) the minimum annual salary needed for an employee to qualify as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements under the “white collar exemptions.”

Yesterday, a federal judge stayed the implementation of those changes. Unfortunately, there have been suggestions in some quarters that this judicial stay reduces the pressure on employers to ensure that they are properly determining which employees are eligible and not eligible for overtime pay.

The challenging element of the white collar exemptions to the overtime rules – and the one that is the subject of considerable and growing litigation against employers – is not the application of the dollar limit for the salary basis exemption but the often difficult determination of whether a particular employee is performing the kind of high-end duties that are necessary in order to be exempt.

Therefore, employers should not let up on their continuing efforts to ensure that they have correctly determined whether their employees do or do not pass the duties test, and their efforts to document fully the basis for those determinations.

Please contact Doug Desmarais (ddesmarais@smithdowney.com, 410-321-9348) or Kerstin Miller (kmiller@smithdowney.com, 410-321-5864) if we can be of any assistance.