Department Of Labor Expected To Release Overtime Rule Soon

The U.S. Department of Labor announced last week that it has sent a proposed regulation altering overtime policies to the White House for analysis. As a reminder, the Obama Administration had planned to release this draft rule in February. While they warned the White House review process could take many months, some analysts now believe DOL could release the draft as early as June. 

In its proposal, the administration is expected to double the income threshold for workers eligible for overtime. (The current threshold is $23,660.) 

The employment law group Littler reports that, in addition to the increase in the income threshold, DOL is expected to focus on executive exemption. Littler wrote, “In particular, we expect the DOL to narrow the exemption for retail and restaurant managers and assistant managers in two ways.” First, Littler expects DOL to “propose a California-style rule that exempt employees must spend more than 50 percent of their time performing exempt work.” Second, it expects the Labor Department might “eliminate the concept of ‘concurrent duties’ – when an exempt manager or assistant manager continues to perform exempt management duties even while performing non-exempt work such as running a cash register or stocking shelves.”