Fair Labor Standards Act Threshold

2 years ago

On December 17, 2021, the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported that
the Department of Labor (DOL) was planning to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NRPM)
in April of this year, raising the salary level for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) threshold for
executive, administrative and professional exemptions.

Currently, the threshold for exemption is $684.00/week or $35,568.00 annually. What that means is if an employer has an employee who performs duties that are of an exempt level but who is paid less than the threshold, that employee becomes non-exempt from the FLSA and is eligible for overtime pay at the rate of time and ½ for hours worked over 40 hours in a work week. If the threshold amount for
exemption is increased, it will mean that if you want to keep your management employees in
the exempt category, not only will you have to ensure that their duties are of an exempt
nature, but you may need to increase their pay dependent on their current salary and any
changes to the FLSA threshold.

Research into the item shows that while the feds have planned listening tours related to the
subject, no specific information regarding a published NRPM could be found and the College
and Universities Professionals (CUPA) reported that the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) would
be unable to meet the April 22 target date for the NPRM.

WHD has announced its first listening tour for “Southeast Workers and Advocates” for May 5,
at 4:00 PM MST with a list of additional sessions following this first event, categorized by stakeholder and region. The “Overtime Listening Session for Southwest Employers” is slated for Friday, May 27, 2022, at 1:00 pm MST.

If you have questions regarding job descriptions and duties, FLSA classification, pay, and/or
benchmarking, contact Southwestern HR Consulting. We Keep HR Simple!