Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC office, was quoted in the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, in “Two Senior Officials Exit Labor Department’s Wage Division,” by Ben Penn. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division is losing its two most senior career officials this week, depriving the agency of a pair of experienced leaders as it implements a series of regulations that will alter its enforcement activities.

Patricia Davidson, formerly WHD’s associate administrator for regional and enforcement support, has taken a new post this week as deputy director of a different DOL subagency, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, sources with direct knowledge told Bloomberg Law. Davidson worked at WHD for decades and ascended to become WHD’s top career senior executive, overseeing regional-level enforcement of minimum wage, overtime, family leave, and child labor laws.

Mary Ziegler, another long-tenured civil servant who is now WHD’s associate administrator for policy, will retire from the agency later this week. …

Key Moment at Hand

The duo exit as the agency is in the early stages of implementing a trio of regulations that are expected to bring major changes to the WHD enforcement landscape: a rule to lift the salary threshold for overtime eligibility to about $36,000; a rule to narrow the interpretation of when two businesses are jointly liable for wage violations; and a rule updating the types of employee perks that are included in time-and-a-half overtime calculations.

Despite the attrition atop WHD’s career ranks, the agency is buoyed by a robust team of nine political appointees, led by Stanton and including two deputies, a chief-of-staff, and five advisers, according to the division’s organization chart.

Paul DeCamp, member of the law firm Epstein Becker Green and a former WHD chief during the George W. Bush administration, praised Davidson’s and Ziegler’s legacies, while also noting the significance underlying the agency’s next steps.

“For the Wage and Hour Division, these changes afford Administrator Stanton an opportunity to fill the very important positions that Mary and Patty leave behind,” DeCamp said via email. “The individuals who assume these roles will likely have a significant hand in shaping the course of enforcement and policy development for years to come, possibly beyond the current administration.”

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