In 2016, the US Department of Labor published its final rule regarding changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which dictates federal overtime wage laws. Of note was a significant change to the minimum salary threshold required to classify an employee as exempt from overtime laws. However, a United States District judge imposed an injunction that stopped the rule’s enforcement from going into effect, and, as of 2018, there do not appear to be any efforts to revive the proposed changes.
Nevertheless, individual states can and do set their own overtime laws, and several have made recent changes to the minimum thresholds required to classify an employee as exempt. Listed below are seven states that have recently updated their minimum salaries.* If you have any exempt employees in these states, now would be a prudent time to revalidate their classifications.
Most states have a single value that applies across the board. However, California, New York, and Oregon have some nuanced rules that relate to organization size and/or geographic location. Oregon uses an urban designation that includes Portland Metro and areas located within the urban growth boundary of a metropolitan service district.
The latest state thresholds are as follows:
Alaska: $787.20 per week ($40,934.40 annually)
California
- 25 or fewer employees: $840 per week ($43,680 annually)
- 26 or more employees: $880 per week ($45,760 annually)
Connecticut: $475 per week ($24,700 annually)
Iowa: $500 per week ($26,000 annually)
Maine: $576.93 per week ($30,000.01 annually)
New York
New York City
- 10 or fewer employees $900.00 per week ($46,800 annually)
- 11 or more employees $975.00 per week ($50,700 annually)
Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties: $825.00 per week ($42,900 annually)
All other areas: $780.00 per week ($40,560 annually)
Oregon Urban: $475 per week ($24,700 annually) − rule goes into effect on July 1, 2018.
*States and areas with minimums below the federal level ($455 per week) are not included.
ERI’s Occupational Assessor includes an FLSA Overtime edition designed to help you easily estimate overtime exemption status at the state and federal level for over 21,000 jobs.
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