Overtime Rule Is New DOL


HALTED: Now What?


Truckload Carriers Association general counsel and TTA member off ers insight into the latest news regarding Dept. of Labor’s overtime regulations and how they impact trucking


BY R. EDDIE WAYLAND GUEST WRITER


A federal district court judge in Texas has issued a preliminary injunction halting the implementation of the U.S. w’s (“DOL”) new overtime rule. T e rule would have dramatically increased the salary threshold required to qualify for the overtime exemption for Executive (Supervisory), Administrative, Professional, and Highly Compensated Employees. T e court’s ruling means that the new overtime rule did not go into eff ect on December 1, 2016. T e question now is: where do we go from here?


FLSA BACKGROUND T e Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”)


guarantees overtime premium pay of not less than one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. T e FLSA provides several exemptions to this overtime requirement. It has long been understood that, to fall under the executive, administrative, and professional (“EAP”) exemptions, three tests must be met: (1) the


employee must be paid a predetermined and fi xed salary (salary basis test); (2) the employee’s salary must meet a specifi ed minimum amount (salary level test); and (3) the employee’s job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties (“duties test”). T e FLSA regulations also provide an


exemption for highly compensated employees (“HCE”). Under the regulations, an HCE is exempt if: (1) the employee’s total annual compensation meets the threshold amount (which must include the minimum amount specifi ed under the salary level test paid on a salary basis); (2) the employee’s primary duty includes performing offi ce or non-manual work; and (3) the employee customarily and regularly performs one or more of the exempt duties of an executive, administrative, or professional employee.


THE DOL FINAL RULE T e new rule made signifi cant changes


to the EAP and HCE exemptions. First, the new rule increases the threshold salary


level for EAP employees from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $913 per week ($47,476 per year) – an increase of over 100 percent. T e new rule also increased the annual compensation requirement needed to exempt HCEs, from $100,000 to $134,004. Both these new salary thresholds were tied to wage data percentiles based on census data. T ese salary and compensation levels were to have automatically updated every three years to maintain the levels at the specifi ed percentiles. Under the duties test, to qualify as an


exempt EAP employee, the employee’s job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties. T e new rule did not make any changes to the duties tests. T e DOL stated that it believed the threshold salary level increase combined with automatically updating the level every three years, adequately addressed the DOL’s goal to limit the application of the EAP exemptions.


CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 Q4 WINTER 2017 TENNESSEE TRUCKING NEWS • 23


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36