Obama Seeks Expansion of Overtime Pay and More Labor & Employment Law Updates

By Robert Sniffen posted 04-11-2014 10:39

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President Obama Seeks Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay

President Obama, exercising his executive authority, is proposing revisions to the overtime regulations of the FLSA which will have far reaching impacts to both employers and employees. Under current federal regulations, employees deemed executive, administrative or professional can be denied overtime pay under the so called white-collar exemption. However, employers are prohibited from denying overtime pay to any salaried employee making less than $455 per week. This has been the salary threshold since 2004.

The President’s proposal could significantly increase the salary threshold as has been done in California and New York (increases of thresholds to $600.00 and $640.00 respectively). This change could potentially increase the number of people that qualify for overtime and shift significant amounts of revenue from the corporate coffers into the pockets of workers.

Additionally, the rules that allow employers to restrict overtime dependent on the type of work performed by the employee will likely undergo changes. Currently, employers can minimize the effects of overtime by declaring that an employee’s primary responsibility is executive, such as oversight of other employees. The new regulations may require a minimum percentage of “executive” work before employees can be exempted from qualifying for overtime pay, negating the scenario where any employee is exempt from overtime because 10% of his or her time is spent supervising others.

Jared Bernstein, former executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class believes the “…intent of the rule change is to make sure that people working overtime are fairly treated,” although he notes the “…potential side effect is that you may see more hiring in order to avoid overtime costs, which would be an awfully good thing right about now.”

The proposed changes will be subject to public comment before final approval by the Labor Department and strong opposition could cause the President to scale back his proposed changes. Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, has already warned that these proposed changes could result in employers cutting pay or using fewer workers.

Source: New York Times

More Labor & Employment Law Updates:

EEOC Considers Social Media in the Workplace and Employment Discrimination
The EEOC recently heard from a panel of experts addressing employment discrimination as applied to social media use by employees, employers, and applicants for employment. Concerns presented to the EEOC include engagement of employees through social media accounts of employers, utilization of social media to keep employees abreast of policies and issues, marketing, and recruitment. Panelists noted that use of social media as tools to glean information about applicants could be improper if information such as age, race, or gender, which is discernable from social media accounts, is used as a basis to make a hiring decision. Another concern for employers may be the existence of workplace harassment occurring outside of the workplace but on social media.

The EEOC will hold an open meeting to further discuss social media and employment discrimination.

EEOC Issues New Publication on Religious Garb and Grooming in the Workplace: Rights and Responsibilities
Earlier this month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued a new publication to answer questions about how Title VII applies to religious practices in¬volving dress and grooming. Essentially, employers subject to Title VII must make exceptions to usual rules when an employee requests an exception to an appearance code that is “motivated by a religious belief.”

Eleventh Circuit Rules on Waiver of Right to Class Action Under the FLSA
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that §16b of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") does not preclude the waiver of an individual's right to participate in a class action.

Vacation Request for Depression Not Entitled to FMLA Protection
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a sizeable jury verdict for a Plaintiff em¬ployee claiming that his employer violated the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) after it denied him leave for vacation time to deal with depression and fired him in retaliation for his attempt to take FMLA leave.

Read More on these and other updates at SniffenLaw.com

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