On December 10, the Department of Labor announced it is planning to issue a new overtime regulation to raise the minimum salary threshold under which all employees must be paid overtime. DOL has not publicized a specific figure yet. We also believe the administration is considering altering the duties test, or the test used to determine if a worker’s specific job responsibilities make them ineligible for overtime pay.

The overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act have been updated several times over the last few years. The Obama administration wanted to raise the salary threshold to over $50,000 per year, an increase of over 100%. They were forced to lower the figure to $47,476 in their final rule, but this figure still put the economy and workers’ wellbeing in jeopardy. While the Trump administration was able to right the ship and bring the threshold down to a more reasonable $35,568 per year, we expect the Biden administration to “go big” in their proposal.

PPWO will file comments on the upcoming proposal to ensure reasonable, responsible regulations are put in place.