Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC office, was quoted in Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, in “Businesses Get Good News in Trump Administration Wage Plans,” by Ben Penn. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The Labor Department is quietly starting work on three previously unannounced regulations that are all designed to update wage laws—almost certainly to employers’ advantage.
The proposed rules are buried in the Trump administration’s long-term action plan that supplements the May 22 regulatory agenda. They address areas of the Fair Labor Standards Act that management and business advocates have recommended the DOL take up to provide further clarity.
Potentially the most significant of the trio is a proposal to update an overtime pay exemption for certain retail and service employees who are paid a commission. The move could expand the types of businesses that are permitted that don’t have to pay time-and-a-half wages to employees when they work more than 40 hours in a week.
“The Department has not meaningfully updated these interpretations for many years,” the agency wrote in a short abstract of the rulemaking plan.
There’s no estimated release date for the retail and service exemption proposal and items included in the semi-annual long-term action list are generally not considered top priorities. The Wage and Hour Division already has an extensive regulatory list in the works. Seven regulations already underway are included in the agenda’s main section detailing all rules expected to be published in the next 12 months.
Still, the addition of this rule and others to the division’s agenda offers a window into what the agency would prioritize if President Donald Trump wins a second term.
The new WHD long-term actions “reflect the starting point for second-term regulatory activity by the agency,” Paul DeCamp, a former WHD chief under President George W. Bush, said. “In light of the calendar, the practical window for issuing new regulatory proposals in this term is rapidly closing, if it hasn’t already closed.” DeCamp is now an attorney with management-side firm Epstein Becker Green in Washington.
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- Member of the Firm