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- DOL ISSUES FINAL WHITE-COLLAR OVERTIME RULES
DOL ISSUES FINAL WHITE-COLLAR OVERTIME RULES
ANCOR reports that U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao issued final regulations governing overtime eligibility for white-collar workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The new rules update 50-year-old regulations that were often confusing to ANCOR members and their employees and will expand the number of workers eligible for overtime by nearly tripling the salary threshold. The new FairPay rule was filed April 20th and was made public on Friday, April 23rd.
The final rule accomplishes exactly what we intended from the start, which is to preserve and protect overtime rights for white-collar workers. We are pleased to see people recognize the significant gains to workers under our final rule. Now there can be no doubt that workers win.
Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, April 20th
Under the old rule issued in 1938, only workers earning less than $8,060 annually were guaranteed overtime. Under the new rules:
· Workers earning $23,660 ($455 a week) or less are guaranteed overtime rights regardless of their job duties. This is a change from the Administration’s original proposal’s $22,100 cutoff.
· The Department scaled back its original draft regulations and under the new FairPay rules, DOL has added new sections that clearly state that blue-collar workers—police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and licensed practical nurses are entitled to overtime protection.
· The new rules modify the tests determining who qualifies for overtime pay, with the criteria including the amount of managerial responsibility and professional training.
· The new rules will indicate that some workers earning between $23,660 and $100,000 will be eligible for overtime pay—a substantial shift from the Department’s earlier proposal. White-collar employees who earn at least $100,000 will be exempt from overtime pay if they regularly perform some duties of an executive, administrative or professional employee. But white-collar workers earning more than $100,000 will still receive overtime pay if covered by a union contract that provides for it. [NOTE: Until the regulation is issued, no more information is available.]
· The final regulation omits the Administration’s original proposal that military training could be counted as professional education that might disqualify workers from overtime pay.
· The new FairPay rules will take effect in 120 days.
The Department received more than 75,000 letters—including a lengthy set of comments submitted by ANCOR on June 30, 2003—during the public comment phase of the rulemaking process. (For more information, visit ANCOR Wage and Hour website at www.ancor.org/dev/issues/Wage_Hour.htm.).
ANCOR will provide its members with an analysis of the new rule shortly after its publication on Friday. Until that analysis is complete, please rely on the following sources of information:
The DOL rule will be published Friday at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/frcont04.html.
- A text version of the rule will be available online at www.dol.gov/fairpay.
- Fact Sheets--including information on executive, administrative, computer, and learned professional exemptions--and Video Seminars are now available at www.dol.gov/fairpay.
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