CareNotes

Federal Overtime Rule Postponed – New Regulations Will Not Take Effect December 1, 2016

The Long Term Care Leader reports that a U.S. District Court judge in Texas ruled in favor of preliminary injunction for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) overtime rule, delaying its implementation nationwide. The rule is halted and will not go into effect on December 1, 2016.

The rule, previously set to take effect Dec. 1, and the biggest change to U.S. labor law in more than a decade, would double (to $47,476) the salary threshold under which virtually all workers receive time-and-a-half pay whenever they work more than 40 hours in a given week. The Labor Department has estimated that the rule change would affect 200,000 hospital workers and 300,000 non-hospital health care workers. The Trump administration also could move to reverse the measure.

The Court’s ruling halts enforcement of the overtime rule nationally until it has had an opportunity to complete consideration of the underlying case. The US DOL’s rule that would have increased the minimum salary level for exempt employees from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $921 per week ($47,892 annually) WILL NOT go into effect on December 1, 2016, as originally scheduled.