The U.S. Department of Labor has submitted the highly anticipated update to the FLSA overtime rule (RIN:1235-AA20 Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review.
The OIRA is part of the OMB and is an agency within the Executive Office of the President that reviews draft proposals and final regulations, in addition to other responsibilities. The OMB review is the final step before the proposed regulation is published in the Federal Register.
To follow the approval process of the proposed update to the FLSA overtime rule, see www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/EO/eoDashboard.myjsp. Once on the website, scroll down to the Department of Labor section and review the following information and status for RIN 1235-AA20:
| AGENCY: DOL-WHD | RIN: 1235-AA20 | Status: Pending Review |
| TITLE: Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees | ||
| STAGE: Proposed Rule | ECONOMICALLY SIGNIFICANT: Yes | |
| RECEIVED DATE: 01/16/2019 | LEGAL DEADLINE: None | |
The Fair Labor Standards Act’s salary threshold of $23,660 “certainly needs to be updated,” Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta said at the American Bar Association’s 11th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. But the $47,476 threshold originally recommended by the Obama administration in 2016 was litigated and never implemented. It “created a shock to the system, so we put out a request for information and are looking at the comments that were submitted,” continued Secretary Acosta. The general expectation is that the proposal will include a new salary threshold in the low- to mid-thirties range.
What happens next?
Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register (which now might take place in March 2019), formal comments on the proposal may then be submitted to the Department of Labor. The general public, companies, and nonprofits, as well as professional associations, are anticipated to be proactively submitting commentary on the proposed update to the FLSA overtime rule.
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