The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (“FLSA”) created the right to a minimum wage and overtime pay. The FLSA also provides exemptions to overtime pay requirements for certain employees. Under the “bona fide executive” exemption, “highly compensated employees” are exempt from overtime if performing at least one qualifying job duty. However, on February 22, 2023, the United States Supreme Court, in its 6-3 decision in Helix Energy Solution Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, clarified that highly compensated employees paid on a “day-rate” do not qualify for this exemption because a day-rate does not satisfy the salary basis test.Continue Reading Supreme Court Clarifies a “Day-Rate” Does Not Meet the FLSA “Salary Basis” Test, Even for Highly Compensated Employees

On May 2, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) granted an employer’s petition for review to determine whether highly compensated employees are entitled to overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) if they are paid on a daily rate and not on a salary basis.
Continue Reading SCOTUS to Determine Whether Highly Compensated Employees Are Entitled to Overtime Pay

On March 7, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (“USDOL”) issued its long-awaited proposed rule that would increase the minimum salary threshold to qualify for exemption from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) from their current level of $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $679 per week ($35,308 annually). The proposed rule would also raise the threshold for “highly-compensated employees” from $100,000 annually to $147,414 per year. It is anticipated that the changes will extend overtime coverage to approximately one million United States workers. The proposed rule will be subject to a period of public comment and is anticipated to take effect in January 2020.
Continue Reading United States Department of Labor Issues Final Rule Concerning Minimum Salary Threshold to Qualify for Exemption from Overtime Under the Fair Labor Standards Act

On November 22, 2016, a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Labor from enforcing new regulations that would have drastically reduced the number of white collar employees who are exempt from overtime.  The disputed regulations were set to take effect on December 1.
Continue Reading Texas Federal Court Blocks New Salary Restrictions for Exempt Employees

[UPDATE] On December 29, 2016, the New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) adopted its proposed rule increasing overtime exempt salary thresholds for New York employees. The new rule is set to take effect in just two days on December 31, 2016. The NYSDOL made no changes to the version of the proposed rule published on October 19, 2016 and discussed in this article. Employers in New York should plan to comply with the new overtime salary thresholds as outlined below on January 1, 2017. The United States Department of Labor’s proposed rule to increase the national overtime exempt salary threshold is still under a nationwide preliminary injunction and is set to be decided in the first half of 2017.  However, this preliminary injunction had no effect on the December 31, 2016 effective date of the New York State rule.
Continue Reading New York State Department of Labor Proposes Increases to Overtime Exempt Salary Threshold

On July 22, 2015, Governor Brown signed AB 2535 that clarifies which employees for whom an employer must track hours worked and record those hours on their wage statements.  The bill will become effective January 1, 2017.

Prior to this amendment, Labor Code section 226 required that an employee’s paystub include hours worked for all employees except individuals who are paid “solely” by salary and are “exempt from payment of overtime” under Labor Code section 515(a) or the governing wage order.  As written, this seemed to require hours on the paystub for exempt outside sales people and executives who are not paid solely by salary but receive bonuses and stock options even though these employees do not record hours worked and hours worked is not a relevant figure when calculating their wages.  In fact, in Garnett v. ADT, LLC, 139 F. Supp. 3d 1121 (2015), the district court held that exemption in Labor Code section 226 did not apply to exempt outside salespersons since they were paid solely by commission (and not salary) and, therefore, had to have their total hours worked included on their paystubs.  The Garnett court noted in its decision that, “[w]hile the usefulness of reporting total hours worked for employees paid solely by commission is not entirely clear, it is nonetheless required by Labor Code Section 226 (a).”Continue Reading Governor Brown Signs Bill Clarifying Wage Statement Requirements for Exempt Employees

In March 2014, President Obama signed an executive order directing the Department of Labor to revise its aging rules governing overtime pay for white collar employees.  The Department solicited comments from the public on an earlier draft in July 2015.  Yesterday, the Department of Labor released the final version of the new rules.  The new version includes a number of changes—some expected, but others less so.
Continue Reading DOL Makes Last-Minute Tweaks to New Overtime Exemption Rules