{"id":10713,"date":"2024-06-14T08:46:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T12:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworkplaceadvisors.com\/?p=10713"},"modified":"2024-06-14T08:46:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T12:46:29","slug":"dol-exempt-minimum-salary-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworkplaceadvisors.com\/dol-exempt-minimum-salary-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"DOL Exempt Minimum Salary – Now What?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
While legal challenges have been requesting an injunction until the question whether the DOL has the right to increase the salary threshold is determined, no such injunction has been issued as of this writing. Therefore, all employers must prepare their response to the new rule which goes into effect July 1, 2024. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2024, the US Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-anticipated change to the \u201cwhite-collar\u201d exemptions (Executive, Administrative, and Professional or EAP) and Highly-Compensated exemptions. The changes were published to its website and can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Increasing the salary requirement reflects the overall growth of wages in general as well as the thinking that an employee with exempt-level responsibilities to be truly exempt should probably be making more than $17.10 per hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOL estimates that by January 1, 2025, the exemption of four million workers will be impacted unless their employers increase their weekly salary, while another 292,900 workers will be impacted with the increased Highly-Compensated salary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the Basics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)<\/a> is enforced by the Department of Labor (DOL) and dictates several areas of labor law including minimum wage, overtime, compensable time, child labor, and independent contractors. FLSA also requires all employees to be classified as exempt<\/em> or non-exempt<\/em> according to its definitions and tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Non-exempt employees<\/em> must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked and time-and-a-half their regular wage rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek (defined as a set 7-day period). To ensure proper wage payment, records must be kept of their exact time worked within this 7-day period, although how time is tracked is left to the discretion of the employer. Non-exempt employees can be paid hourly or salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exempt employees <\/em>are not required to be paid overtime and do not need to track their exact time worked. While there are many categories, the main ones are Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer, Outside Sales, and Highly-Compensated<\/a>. To be classified as exempt, employees must pass three tests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with all labor laws, if an employee\u2019s classification is uncertain under these tests, the employee must be classified as \u201cnon-exempt\u201d as this is considered the most favorable to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n