At least once a week we get a call from a client inquiring about the status of the new salary threshold overtime regulations. We have an update, and the news is good for employers!
By way of background, on May 23, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its final rule (Rule) to increase the threshold salary requirements for exemptions from overtime entitlement under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). We previously discussed the DOL’s Rule here. In short, the Rule more than doubled the salary threshold (from $455 per week to $913 per week) for professional, administrative and executive employees to qualify as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements, and it increased the salary requirement for exempt highly compensated individuals from $100,000 to $122,148, thereby entitling millions of additional employees to overtime pay under the FLSA at a significant cost to employers, particularly small businesses and not-for-profit organizations.
The Rule was enjoined on Nov. 22, 2016, just days before it was scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 1, 2016. Two groups of plaintiffs – one composed of 55+ businesses and the other composed of 21 states – challenged the Rule on various grounds, including that the drastic increase in salary requirements effectively overtook the rest of the statute and wrongly required the reclassification of certain employees who were performing bona fide executive, administrative and/or professional duties and thus were rightfully categorized as exempt from overtime. Judge Amos Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted the injunction. Continue Reading
Last week, the Second Circuit joined the Third Circuit in lowering the causation standard in evaluating alleged Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violations against employers. Under a lower “motivating factor” standard established in Cassandra Woods v. START Treatment & Recovery Centers, courts within the Second Circuit must consider whether the exercise of an employee’s rights under the FMLA was one “motivating factor” in the decision to fire the employee. Previously, the Second Circuit had adopted a higher “but for” standard, which considers whether the employer wouldn’t have fired the employee “but for” the employee exercising his/her FMLA rights.
On July 17, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded that an employee could sue her employers for state law disability discrimination for failing to accommodate her use of medical marijuana after she failed to pass a drug test. In so holding, the court interpreted workplace protections not explicitly stated in Massachusetts’ medical marijuana law.
As we 
Given the exponential uptick in wage and hour lawsuits during the Obama administration and the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) continuing aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws, many employers have felt the risk of a potential lawsuit looming over their heads for pay violations they may not even know exist. Before 2010, Opinion Letters prepared and made publicly available by the DOL were invaluable to employers seeking clarification of a wage and hour rule or regulation. Oftentimes these Opinion Letters were the only guidance available to a company desperately attempting not to run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act and its myriad complex regulations. However, in 2010, after 70 years, the practice was stopped in favor of Administrator Interpretations, but the frequency with which those have been issued the past seven years is glacial in comparison to the prior DOL Opinion Letters. In addition, Administrator Interpretations tended to be more general in nature, while DOL Opinion Letters had historically been more comprehensive and nuanced. 
Did the new Labor Secretary finally throw employers a bone? We think so, but it’s too early to tell whether it’s delicious bacon-flavored or some generic processed meat flavor.
Do you have a nanny or a housekeeper? A regular babysitter? If so, pay attention.
UPDATE: 