Simms Showers Legal Alert
December 2, 2015
Radical Changes Coming to Salary & Overtime Regulations in 2016
By July 2016, the Department of Labor is slated to release new regulations that will raise the minimum salary requirement for exempt employees. Currently, in order to be exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA, an employee must earn a minimum salary of $23,660 and have specific job responsibilities. Under the proposed rules, initially released July 6, 2015 for public comment, the minimum salary would be increased to $50,440. This means that currently exempt employees making less than $50,440—even if their job responsibilities would otherwise qualify them to be exempt—would have to be reclassified as non-exempt. Employers would then be required to pay overtime to these employees once these regulations become finalized.[1] Nonprofit, church, and other employers will have the option of either reducing the hours of reclassified employees to avoid paying overtime or increasing salaries to reach the minimum threshold. Ordained ministers, even if below the salary threshold, may qualify for an exemption from FLSA. READ MORE HERE…
Going Deeper: Does FLSA Apply to My Church or Nonprofit?
Generally, all employers are subject to the minimum wage requirements and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) if they meet interstate commerce requirements either corporately or individually. Thankfully, non-profits and churches enjoy some special exemptions under FLSA, some of which may help exempt many churches and religious nonprofits. READ MORE HERE…
[1] Since the salary element of the non-exempt test has not been raised in many years, it is very likely that these regulations will be implemented as the final rule starting in 2016.
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