The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) again seeks to increase the salary required to maintain a so-called “white-collar” exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). On March 7, 2019, it announced its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) to update the regulations and requirements under the FLSA for such executive, administrative and professional employees to be exempt from overtime requirements.

The current salary minimum to qualify for one of these white-collar exemptions is only $23,660, and there has been widespread support among both employers and employees for increasing that minimum. The Obama Administration previously published a regulation (the 2016 Final Rule) that would have more than doubled the minimum salary level for such employees to be classified as exempt under the FLSA. However, on Nov. 22, 2016, just nine days before that regulation would have become effective, a U.S. District Court in Texas issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the 2016 rule, followed by a permanent injunction on Aug. 31, 2017.