This alert is posted to make NIRMA members aware of a significant legal development as relates to their employees.
PRIOR INFORMATION: At NIRMA’s 2024 educational events, attendees received information about the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s recent actions to raise salary thresholds under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for covered employees to qualify for overtime exemptions. In particular, members heard about the DOL’s 2024 Rule that raised the salary threshold to $43,888 per year in July of this year, with another planned increase to $58,686 that was to become effective January 1, 2025. This information was shared for members’ planning purposes, but always with the caveat that legal challenges to the 2024 DOL Rule were pending.
CURRENT UPDATE: As of November 15, a federal court in Texas ruled in favor of one of the legal challenges against the 2024 DOL Rule. There are two major impacts of this ruling: 1) the previously anticipated January 1, 2025 change to the salary threshold will NOT take effect, and 2) the prior July 1 change to the salary threshold is no longer in effect. The court’s ruling is an immediate change in the law that applies nationwide.
NIRMA members should read the Woods Aitken e-brief with a full description of this legal development, as shared by attorney Pam Bourne, NIRMA’s labor and employment law partner. It contains guidance on how employers should react to this latest development.
And as always, members may direct their individualized questions about how to navigate this change in the law, as well as any other labor/employment law matters, to the attorneys answering the NIRMA HR Help Line at 866.896.6423.
