Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1173600
W EEKLY EDITION OCTOBER 2, 2019 La bor Depa rt ment Issues Fi na l O ver ti me R ule Continued from page 1 Workers earning less than that amount annually will be paid time and a half for working over 40 hours per week. The overtime rule was last adjusted in 2004. The final rule updates the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative, or professional employees from the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime pay requirements and allows employers to count a portion of certain bonuses (and commissions) towards meeting the salary level. The new thresholds account for growth in employee earnings since the currently enforced thresholds were set in 2004. In the final rule, the Department is: • raising the " standard salary level" from the currently enforced level of $455 to $684 per week (equivalent to $35,568 per year for a full - year worker); • raising the total annual compensation level for "highly compensated employees (HCE)" from the currently - enforced leve l of $100,000 to $107,432 per year; • allowing employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) that are paid at least annually to satisfy up to 10 percent of the standard salary level, in recognition of evolving pay p ractices; and • revising the special salary levels for workers in U.S. territories and in the motion picture industry. The final rule will be effective on January 1, 2020. The increases to the salary thresholds are long overdue in light of wage and salary growth since 2004. Nearly every person who commented on the Department's 2017 Request for Information, participated at listening sessions in 2018 regarding the regulations, or commented on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking agreed that the thresholds needed to be updated for this reason. P AGE 18 CONTINUED ON PAGE 19