Ziegler & Schneider attorney, Matthew C. Smith was a guest lecturer last night at Chase Law School for a Contract Drafting class. Matt spoke to law school students on the importance of clear legal drafting and provided tips for negotiating contracts. As part of the firm’s Business & Corporate Practice Group Matt has a lot of experience drafting contracts for various businesses, including but not limited to, employment contracts, representing physicians in contracting for employment, and commercial transactions.
On May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor released the “Final Rule” of an update to its overtime regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Final Rule makes significant changes to the regulation’s “salary test” , which is used to determine whether an employee is exempt or non-exempt from the payment of overtime.
Under the FLSA, certain Executive, Administrative and Professional positions (“EAP exemptions”) are exempt from the payment of overtime for hours that exceed 40 hours in a workweek. To be exempt, each of these positions must meet a “duties test” and a “salary test”.
The new regulation, which will take effect on December 1, 2016, focuses on increasing the threshold level under the “salary test” for an employee to be exempt specifically under the exemptions for Executive, Administrative, and Professional positions. The “duties test” for these positions has not changed. This article summarizes the substantive changes in the law, which will affect over 55,000 individuals in Kentucky and may impact your business. This Final Rule makes significant changes to the overtime laws. Even though there are significant changes under the Final Rule, there are methods of compliance that can be utilized to have the least impact on your business. To learn more about reducing the impact of these changes on your business, please contact us.
Existing Duties Test
While FLSA recognizes five distinct exemptions to the overtime provisions, this Final Rule sought to address only three: Executive, Administrative, and Professional positions. As previously mentioned, the duties test for the EAP positions has remained unchanged.
New Salary Test
For the EAP positions, the Final Rule will increase the salary threshold to $47,476 annually ($913 per week), representing an increase just slightly more than 100% from the current threshold of $23,660 annually ($455 per week). The Final Rule also establishes a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every three years to maintain the levels at the above percentiles and to ensure that they continue to provide useful and effective tests for exemption.
Nondiscretionary Bonuses, Commissions, Etc…
Historically, the Department of Labor has assessed compliance with the salary level by looking only at actual salary or fee payments made to the employees, excluding bonus payments of any kind. While employers are allowed to pay additional compensation beyond the required salary in the form of bonuses, those payments have never counted towards the minimum salary level. The exclusion of such bonuses in the minimum salary level calculation was the result of a concern that permitting such bonus payments that frequently correlate to the quantity or quality of work performed could undermine the utility of the salary basis. The Final Rule will permit nondiscriminatory bonuses and inventive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the standard weekly salary level test for the first time, provided that these forms of compensation are paid at least quarterly.
- Salary Threshold increase to $47,476 annually ($913 per week), representing over a 100% increase from the current threshold of $23,660 annually ($455 per week).
- The threshold will be reevaluated every three (3) years and adjusted pursuant to what the 40th percentile of full time salaried workers in the lowest wage region of the country earn (currently the South).
- Regulation shall become effective on December 1, 2016.
- Nondiscretionary Commissions/Bonuses will count towards 10% of the minimum salary threshold.
- No changes to the duties test.
- Positions subject to the NEW “Salary Test” include:
- Positions NOT subject to the NEW “Salary Test:”
- Academic Administrative Personnel
- Outside Sales Workers
For more information on how Ziegler & Schneider, PSC can help you and your business maintain compliance with these NEW Final Rule Regulations, please contact Matt Smith at (859) 426-1300 or by emailing email@example.com