The Department of Labor’s proposed overhaul of the white-collar exemption overtime regulations, which could expand overtime eligibility to an estimated 4.6 million workers, may not go into effect on the breakneck timeline that employers feared.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the Solicitor of Labor recently indicated that the final rule likely will not be published before late 2016, which would give employers a much longer runway to prepare for the changes before they go into effect. The revelation is welcome news to many employers who were bracing for the rule to be published later this year or early 2016.

The DOL is currently proposing to more than double the minimum annual salary threshold, which hasn’t been updated since 2004, but it hasn’t said whether it will change the relevant job duties test along with the salary bump.  Given the high stakes, the DOL received more than 250,000 public comments on the proposed rule this summer.