Yesterday, the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division issued its final rule with updates to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime requirements. The most-awaited update was the dollar amount for an employee to be considered exempt from overtime. DOL set the exemption at $684 per week — which is equivalent to $35,568 per year. Here is a link to DOL’s summary of the new rule: DOL Overtime Rule.
Regular readers may recall that DOL, under the Obama administration, proposed raising the exemption from $23,660 to $47,476 in 2016. Here is a link to a summary of that proposed rule: 2016 Overtime Post. Implementation of that rule was halted in court and the DOL under the Trump administration later rescinded it.
The new rule is effective January 1, 2020. Hopefully, Alabama employers have already reviewed their exempt employees to ensure that they comply with the imminent changes to the FLSA. If you have not done so, you need to immediately review all of your exempt employees to ensure that they comply with the new rule.