Employers can expect to see change more quickly at the Department of Labor (DOL), including issuance of a final overtime rule perhaps as soon as by the end of the year, now that it’s under new leadership—new Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella. …
Paul DeCamp, an attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, D.C., and a former administrator with the Wage and Hour Division as well, said, “Pat was at DOL when I was there and I know him pretty well.” He said Pizzella “is very focused on getting things done. He is the kind of leader who will quickly develop an understanding—if he has not already done so—of what the department can realistically achieve during the remainder of this term, and he will push to ensure that the various agencies at the department continue to make progress along that path.” …
Status of the Overtime Rule
Employers are particularly interested in the overtime rule. In it, the DOL has proposed raising the salary threshold for white-collar exemptions to $35,308 annually. The proposed level is a compromise between the current $23,660 threshold and the now-blocked $47,476 cutoff that was adopted by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2016. …
“Certainly there are employers, particularly in rural or southern markets, that feel that the new proposed salary threshold for exempt status is too high,” DeCamp said. “But overall the sense in the business community seems to be that the proposed rule is more or less in line where things have been historically.”