As you may recall from some of the prior posts here, employers scrambled to address the Department of Labor’s changes to the salary threshold for white collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That change would have increased the salary threshold from $23,360 to $47,476 annually in December, 2016.
However, several states challenged this increase, resulting in a federal court in Texas issuing a nationwide injunction stalling the increase. Of course, many employers had already made changes to address the increase, but the injunction still stands.
Then the election happened. Which changed everything.
Now, the DOL under the new Trump administration has indicated that it will not advocate for a specific salary level under its regulations, but will instead gather information about the appropriate salary levels.
The DOL has thus issued a request for information to get feedback, which can be accessed here.
What does this mean for employers? While this process will most likely result in an increase in the salary levels, it seems that the DOL will do so based on responses to its request for information rather than arbitrarily setting a salary level.
For now, employers should continue to follow the current regulations and the $23,360 salary level while, of course, also following the Connecticut guidelines where applicable too.
But stay tuned here: Developments in this area now seem on the way.