As we have previously addressed, the U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued its final rule raising salary thresholds for overtime exemptions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) effective January 1, 2025.

While there are legal challenges to the final rule, the DOL is offering webinars about the final rule to employers on May 30, 2024 and June 3, 2024.

Those webinars could certainly provide employers with valuable insights into the DOL’s approach. 

While the DOL may well encourage employers to make modifications immediately to comply with the final rule, the legal challenges strongly suggest that businesses should not do so hastily as it can be difficult, if not impossible, to walk back those modifications should the legal challenges be successful.

That said, employers should still be prepared with a plan that can be implemented quickly, if needed, should the final rule withstand the legal challenges. Human resource teams should work with employment counsel to audit their company’s exempt employee census to determine which salaries fail to satisfy the new thresholds, or come close enough that it may make sense to rethink exempt classifications for such positions, all while being mindful of the company’s labor budget and business needs.