In April 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule raising the threshold salary requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for employees classified as exempt from overtime pay when working in excess of forty (40) hours in a seven (7) day workweek, (the “2024 rule”). The 2024 rule, scheduled to take effect July 1, 2024, increases the salary thresholds for the executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions, and highly compensated exemption (HCE). Specifically, the 2024 rule increases the EAP exemptions from $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to $844 per week ($43,888 per year) effective July 1st, and a subsequent increase on January 1, 2025, to $1,128 per week ($58,656 per year). For the HCE, the salary threshold will increase from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year on July 1st, and a subsequent increase on January 1, 2025, to $151,164 per year.Continue Reading Court Scrutiny Faced by The Department of Labor’s New Rule Increasing Exempt Employee Salary Thresholds
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Requires Employers to Pay Employee COBRA Premiums Until September 30, 2021
On April 7th, the United States Department of Labor issued detailed guidance and model notices to assist employers in implementing the COBRA premium assistance requirement under Section 9501 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the ARP).
The ARP requires employers to provide a 100 percent COBRA premium subsidy – between April 1, 2021 and Sept. 30, 2021 – for employees whose reduction in hours or involuntary termination of employment makes them eligible for COBRA continuation coverage during this period. An employer or plan to whom COBRA premiums are payable, advances the COBRA premium and is then entitled to a tax credit for the amount of the premium assistance provided.Continue Reading American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Requires Employers to Pay Employee COBRA Premiums Until September 30, 2021
Better Classification for our Economic Reality
On January 6, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced its final rule seeking to make it easier to classify workers as independent contractors. The distinction is not without difference, as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and many of its state analogues only protect employees, but do not extend to independent contractors – including many gig economy workers. However, as made clear by the new rule, merely identifying a worker as an “independent contractor” does not mean the employer is off the hook.
Continue Reading Better Classification for our Economic Reality
FFCRA Leave: Gone But Not Forgotten as DOL Issues Guidance Post-Stimulus
Although Congress had the opportunity to extend the requirement that companies with 500 or fewer employees provide paid medical leave and family leave to workers impacted by COVID-19, it did not do so; and those mandates expired on December 31, 2020. The eleventh hour stimulus package did keep in place, through March 31, 2021, the tax credit to employers who voluntarily continue to provide this paid benefit.
The USDOL has issued some guidance to provide “clarity around some of the novel issues that FFCRA’s expiration raises” according to Wage and Hour Administrator Cheryl Stanton. As of December 31, 2020, the DOL added two questions and answers (104 and 105) to its very helpful general FFCRA guidance located at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-questions.Continue Reading FFCRA Leave: Gone But Not Forgotten as DOL Issues Guidance Post-Stimulus
Better Classification for our Economic Reality
The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a rule that seeks to make it easier to classify workers as independent contractors. The distinction is not without difference, as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and many of its state analogues only protect employees, but do not extend to independent contractors – including many gig economy workers. However, as made clear by the proposed rule, merely identifying a worker as an “independent contractor” does not mean the employer is off the hook.
Continue Reading Better Classification for our Economic Reality
DOL Invites Feedback On Opening America’s Workplaces Again
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has launched a national online dialogue to obtain feedback on “Opening America’s Workplaces Again.” Businesses and workers are invited to participate in this new public forum and to provide comments through May 7, 2020. Specifically, the DOL seeks ideas and recommendations on what challenges employers and workers may face with a return to work and what companies and employees can best do to reopen workplaces safely. The information obtained will be used to guide the DOL in developing compliance assistance materials for return to work and to assist lawmakers in drafting policy on reopening businesses.Continue Reading DOL Invites Feedback On Opening America’s Workplaces Again
USDOL Issues Guidance on “Regular Rate” of Pay
Calculation of “regular rate” of pay is something which has long given employers fits, and the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) has taken a step which it hopes will clarify the definition, something which hasn’t been done in 50 years. On December 12, 2019 the Final Rule interpreting “regular rate” was announced.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) employers are required to pay non-exempt workers time and one half the “regular rate” for every hour worked over 40. According to the regulations, the “regular rate” includes all remuneration paid to the employee except for certain payments specifically excluded under the FLSA. This would include wages paid by the hour, by salary, or by piecework and most bonuses, commissions, incentive pay, shift differentials, and on-call pay. Excluded payments, by definition, are premium payments for certain work (e.g. Sunday premium pay), discretionary bonuses, holiday gifts, and vacation pay.Continue Reading USDOL Issues Guidance on “Regular Rate” of Pay
DOL Says Some Gig Economy Workers are Independent Contractors
In an opinion letter dated April 29, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) explained that some service providers working for a virtual marketplace company (VMC) are independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This opinion letter identifies the test the DOL is expected to use when considering the classification of workers
Department Of Labor Says That FMLA Leave Cannot Be Deferred
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued an Opinion Letter in which it stated that an employer may not delay the designation of leave qualifying under the Family and Medical Leave Act, even if the affected employee would prefer not to take FMLA leave, and employers may not designate more than 12 weeks of leave as FMLA leave.
Continue Reading Department Of Labor Says That FMLA Leave Cannot Be Deferred
Department of Labor Releases Updated Overtime Proposed Rule Raising the Salary Level for Overtime Exemption
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor released its long-awaited updated overtime rule proposal. Under the proposed rule, the minimum salary level at which an employee can be exempted from federal overtime and minimum wage requirements (assuming other criteria are met) would increase from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $679 per week ($35,308 annually). If enacted, more than a million more workers would become eligible for overtime under the proposed rule.Continue Reading Department of Labor Releases Updated Overtime Proposed Rule Raising the Salary Level for Overtime Exemption