• The House of Representatives passed a bill on September 28, 2016 that would delay FLSA changes for six months. However, H.R. 6094 is unlikely to be signed into law before December 1, if ever.
• On September 20, 2016, 21 states filed a lawsuit, joining the Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Retail Federation and other business groups, alleging the changes are unconstitutional. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, however, these lawsuits are unlikely to move forward. 

So - what's an employer to do? The experts agree - prepare for the FLSA changes as if they are indeed going into effect December 1. 

As we said, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently unveiled the newest addition to the Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that has been updated multiple times over the last several decades. With the new rule, the DOL raises the minimum salary threshold for overtime exempt workers within companies with over $500,000 in annual revenue. The two main types of salaries are:

1. Exempt from overtime (these employees don't qualify for overtime)
2. Non-exempt from overtime (these employees do qualify for overtime)

Although many employees believe they belong to the first group, salary exempt, a lot fall under the salary non-exempt category. This is usually because they do not fall under the true definition of a manager (see the What It Boils Down To section below).

According to the DOL, key provisions of the proposed rule aim to:

1. set the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers ($921 per week, or $47,892 annually);
2. increase the total annual compensation requirement needed to exempt highly compensated employees (HCEs) to the annualized value of the 90th 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 to ensure that they will continue to provide a useful and effective test for exemption.