Breaking: DOL Final Overtime Rule Increases Minimum Salary Threshold for Exemption
The National Law Review / Ny Kelly K. Ballentine of ArentFox Schiff LLP
Effective July 1, employers must pay employees a salary of at least $844 per week (equivalent to $43,888 per year) to qualify for the Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees exemptions from minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
As we have previously reported, this change comes as part of the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) highly anticipated final rule on standard salary levels, which it announced on April 23. The final rule also increases the Highly Compensated Employee exemption total annual compensation threshold to a minimum of $132,964 per year, including at least $844 per week paid on a salary or fee basis, and further includes a mechanism providing for future updates to these earnings thresholds to reflect current earnings data.
Looking to next year, employers should be prepared for another increase on January 1, 2025, which raises the standard salary level to $1,128 per week (equivalent to $58,656 per year) and the Highly Compensated Employee total annual compensation threshold to $151,164 per year, including at least $1,128 per week paid on salary or fee basis. Beginning on July 1, 2027, and every three years thereafter, the final rule empowers the DOL to make future updates to the pay thresholds to reflect current earnings data.
For context, the current rule (effective before July 1) requires a salary minimum of $684 per week (equivalent to $35,568 per year) for the Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees exemptions, and $107,432 per year for the Highly Compensated Employee exemption. Employers are reminded that an employee must meet the minimum salary threshold under both the FLSA and any state statutory scheme to qualify for exemption.
Companies should evaluate their current compensation practices and employee classifications to avoid violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime regulations and associated penalties |
FTC Votes to Ban Noncompete Agreements
The Hill / By Taylor Giorno
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 on Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements that prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job.
From fast food workers to CEOs, the FTC estimates 18 percent of the U.S. workforce is covered by noncompete agreements — about 30 million people.
The final rule would ban new noncompete agreements for all workers and require companies to let current and past employees know they won’t enforce them. Companies will also have to throw out existing noncompete agreements for most employees, although in a change from the original proposal, the agreements may remain in effect for senior executives.
“It is so profoundly unfree and unfair for people to be stuck in jobs they want to leave, not because they lacked better alternatives, but because noncompetes preclude another firm from fairly competing for their labor, requiring workers instead to leave their industries or their homes to make ends,” FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter (D) said in prepared remarks.
The new rule is slated to go into effect 120 days after it’s published in the Federal Register. But its future is uncertain, as pro-business groups opposing the rule are expected to take legal action to block its implementation.
Business groups say noncompete agreements are critical for protecting proprietary information and intellectual property, although the rule would not ban other methods for protecting that information, including nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements. They also question the agency’s authority to issue the blanket, retroactive ban.
Congress has not given the agency explicit authority to ban noncompetes, although there have been several bipartisan bills introduced to reform noncompete agreements, including the Workforce Mobility Act sponsored by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and the Freedom to Compete Act sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest pro-business lobbying group in the country, has said it will sue to block the rule.
Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark called the FTC vote to ban noncompetes “a blatant power grab that will undermine American businesses’ ability to remain competitive.”
“This decision sets a dangerous precedent for government micromanagement of business and can harm employers, workers, and our economy,” Clark said. “The Chamber will sue the FTC to block this unnecessary and unlawful rule and put other agencies on notice that such overreach will not go unchecked.”…
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CMS Releases Medicaid Final Rules, SNF Minimum Staffing Final Rule
NHPCO
On April 22, CMS released three different rules, including:
Through the Medicaid rules, CMS aims to ensure comprehensive coverage and access to Medicaid services through several regulatory changes and prioritize the quality and accessibility of managed care under Medicaid and CHIP programs. While the Minimum Staffing Standards final rule does not apply to hospice providers, there could be impacts to the healthcare workforce at large. |
Hospice Nurse Reveals the Most Common Deathbed Regrets
Unilad / By Niamh Shackleton
They say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die, so how would you feel watching your life back?
Would you be happy with the way you lived your life, or would you have regrets?
If you think you'd have regrets, you're not alone.
Bronnie Ware, a nurse who has spent a large majority of her career working in palliative care, found that there were five common things that people regretted about their lives upon reflection as they approached death.
'I wish I hadn’t dedicated so much of my life to working so hard'
Bronnie, who was a palliative care nurse for eight years, says many expressed their woes of having spent so much of their lives at work.
Apparently men in particular voiced this regret the most, with many being the 'breadwinner' of their house.
Upon reflection, they wished they had spent more time with their loved ones instead.
'I wish I’d lived my life the way I wanted, not how others expected me to behave'
I'm sure a lot of people will empathize with this one.
Bronnie said that many felt they suppressed their true desires in a bid to keep the people around them happy.
One thing in particular that Bronnie noticed is that people regretted not pursuing their personal dreams.
"The only way we can find peace within is to be true to our own calling, our dream and own nature," she writes in her book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing.
'I regret losing touch with so many of my friends'
As we get older and busier, it's gets harder to maintain friendships. According to a survey published last year, eight percent of responds in the US said they had no close friends in what's being hailed as 'a loneliness epidemic' in America.
But, while it might not seem like it when you've got three kids at home and a busy 9-5 job, friendships are extremely important to achieving a fulfilling life…
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