As most every U.S. based employer and “HR Genius” knows by now, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) has proposed major increases to the minimum salary level necessary for certain “white collar” employees to be deemed “exempt” from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) overtime pay requirements. The DOL proposal more than doubled the current minimum  salary level  to $50,440 annually.

Despite this dramatic increase, and perhaps hoping to avoid an avalanche of “feedback,” the DOL gave the public a mere 60 days to file written comments. Like a roomful of annoying moviegoers, however, the public spoke loudly and often, burying the DOL with almost 270,000 comments by early September of 2015.

This, of course, begs the question – when would the DOL finish wading through all of these comments and issue the final overtime pay regulations?  So here’s your first test, HR Geniuses:

When  has the DOL stated the proposed overtime pay regulations would be finalized and released:

1. By the spring of 2016

2. By July of 2016.

3. By late 2016.

4. All of the above.

5. None of the above.

If you chose #4 – “All of the above” – you are a true HR Genius.  In public pronouncements two high ranking DOL officials  and the Wage and Hour Division (of the DOL) have offered up no less than three different deadlines for when to expect the final regulations to be issued. At least the DOL avoided the problem Ralph Waldo Emerson noted of “consistency being the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Given this uncertainty, however, it is all the more important for employers to begin to prepare for the eventual changes sooner than later, so as to avoid being caught flat footed by an ambitious DOL.  Some steps to take now are discussed here.