Payments and Perks: the DOL Announces a Proposal to Clarify What Qualifies as Overtime

By Marianna Michael

On Thursday, March 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced proposed changes to the overtime provisions of section 7(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  In its current form, the statute generally requires employers to pay overtime if workers work more than 40 hours a week.  One exemption to the overtime rule includes the salary basis exemption, where employees generally must be paid at least $455 per week on a salary basis, unless they are outside sales employees, teachers and employees practicing law or medicine.

Overtime pay is equal to one and one half times the regular rate of pay.  In designating what is included under the regular rate of pay, the current provision makes a distinction between payments and perks.  With the proposed provision, the DOL seeks to clarify what qualifies as either a payment or perk in an attempt to discourage employers from offering incentives that are excluded from the calculation of overtime pay.

The proposed changes confirm that the following types of employer-provided benefits may be excluded from the regular rate of pay:

• the cost of providing wellness programs, onsite specialist treatment, gym access and fitness classes and employee discounts on retail goods and services;
• payments for unused paid leave, including paid sick leave;
• reimbursed expenses, even if not incurred “solely” for the employer’s benefit;
• reimbursed travel expenses that do not exceed the maximum travel reimbursement permitted under the Federal Travel Regulation System regulations and that satisfy other regulatory requirements;
• discretionary bonuses;
• benefit plans, including accident, unemployment and legal services; and
• tuition programs, such as reimbursement programs or repayment of educational debt.

This proposal is published for public comments and will remain open until May 28, 2019.  Comments may be submitted to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at www.regulations.gov. More information is available here.

Comment Period Open for DOL’s Proposed Salary Increase

By Sharon Gold

The Office of the Federal Register officially published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) raising the salary minimum for exempt workers that we discussed last week.  The NPRM proposes to raise the minimum salary for exempt workers to $35,308 per year ($679 per week), from the current minimum of $23,660 per year ($455 per week).  The NPRM also raises the highly compensated minimum to $147,414 per year, up from the current minimum of $100,000.  Once a proposed rule is officially published, the 60 day comment period is open.  Employers have until May 21, 2019 to comment.  The link to comment is available here.

If the Rule is finalized, it is estimated that 1.1 million workers will have their salaries raised to the minimum or will be eligible for overtime.

Proposed Revisions Pertaining to Federal Overtime Regulations

By Chelsea K. Painter

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in an attempt to “modernize and streamline” the regulations on exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) minimum wage and overtime pay requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM)” which focuses primarily on increasing federal overtime pay regulatory coverage to nearly 5 million people by raising the minimum salary threshold required to qualify for the FLSA’s “white collar” exemption. Specifically, the Department proposes to:

1. Set the standard salary level at the 40^th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers ($970 a week; or $50,440 a year) in 2016;
2. Increase the total annual compensation requirement needed to exempt highly compensated employees (HCEs) to the annualized value of the 90^th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers ($122,148 annually); and
3. Establish a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels going forward so as to ensure a useful and effective test for exemption.

 

The Department’s regulations have generally required each of the following three tests to be met for the white collar exemptions to apply: 1) the employee must be paid a predetermined, fixed salary that is not subject to

Labor Department Proposes to Eliminate Exemptions for In-Home Companionship Workers Not Directly Employed by a Family

By Edwin S. Hopson

The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced that it was filing a notice of proposed rule-making regarding its regulations pertaining to the exemption for companionship services and live-in domestic services.

Section 13(a)(15) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exempts from the minimum wage and overtime provisions domestic service employees who are employed “to provide companionship services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves (as such terms are defined and delimited by regulations of the Secretary).” Section 13(b)(21) of the law also exempts from the overtime provision any employee employed “in domestic service in a household and who resides in such household.”

These FLSA exemptions, enacted in 1974, were later complimented by Labor Department-promulgated regulations in 1975.  Those regulations have not been amended or changed since 1975.  Since that time, the Department notes that there have been “significant changes in the home health care industry” and “workers who today provide in-home care to individuals are performing duties and working in circumstances that were not envisioned when the companionship services regulations were promulgated.” It also noted that the “number of workers providing these services has also greatly increased, and a significant number of these workers are being excluded from the minimum wage and overtime protections of the FLSA under the companionship services exemption.” Therefore, the Labor Department decided to reduce the scope of the exemption by amending its regulations to revise the definitions of “domestic service employment” and “companionship services.” The Department also proposed to clarify the type of activities and duties that may be considered “incidental” to the provision of companionship services.

Additionally, the Department proposed to amend the record-keeping requirements for live-in domestic workers. Finally, the Department proposed to amend the regulation pertaining to employment by a third party of companions and live-in domestic workers.

These changes would continue to allow the individual, family, or household directly employing the worker’s services to apply the companionship and live-in exemptions but would deny all third party employers of such workers the use of the exemptions.

Comments on the proposed changes to the regulations must be received by the Labor Department on or before February 27, 2012.

 The notice of proposed rule-making may be viewed at:

 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-27/html/2011-32657.htm