Action Item: As the public comment period closed on the U.S. Department of Labor's proposed revisions to the "white collar" exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), the Wage & Hour Defense Institute ("WHDI"), a national organization comprised of wage and hour attorneys from across the United States, submitted comments pointing out the seriously flawed aspects of the proposed changes and warning of the unintended hidden costs and burdens that will likely result. Blank Rome's Jason E. Reisman is a member of the WHDI and contributed to the preparation of the formal comments submitted. The door slammed shut on the comment period on September 4, 2015, but apparently not before more than 50,000 additional comments streamed in during the final days before the midnight deadline.
The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") had an extremely active summer, issuing in late June these proposed new regulations directed at significantly increasing the threshold salary level required to be an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee under the FLSA (see our previous alert here), and then in July issuing guidance warning against the misclassification of employees as "independent contractors" (which you can read more about here).
With the closing of the 60-day public comment period (on September 4, 2015) on the proposed new white collar regulations, the DOL still has a great deal of work ahead. It must now review the nearly 250,000 comments received—which give credence to the fact that a sharp divide exists as to the pros and cons of the proposal.
The WHDI's comments take the positionthat the newly proposed rules do not simplify the interpretation of the FLSA, and will lead to more (not less) litigation. In its analysis, the WHDI asserts that the proposed rules will create significant hidden administrative and employee morale costs and, contrary to the impression created in the press, do not obligate employers to increase an employee's total compensation under the FLSA when converting from exempt to non-exempt status.
Please click here for a copy of the comments submitted by the WHDI.
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