Labor Department finalizes regs to raise exempt employee salary threshold

Late last week, the U.S. Labor Department published final regulations to increase the minimum weekly salary to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act white collar exemptions. The regulations, which take effect Jan. 1, 2020, increase the exemption from $455 per week, or $23,660 per year, to $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. The thresholds determine when an employee is exempt from being paid overtime.

Under the regulations, the exemption for “highly compensated employees” has also been raised from $100,000 to $107,432, though employees must meet other criteria under the administrative, executive or professional exemptions to qualify.

New York credit unions should note that the state’s executive and administrative exemptions are already higher than the federal levels. However, as the labor and employment law firm Bond, Shoeneck and King pointed out in a recent blog post, “New York does not set a minimum salary level for the professional exemption, so employers will need to review the salary levels of professional employees to ensure that they meet the new federal threshold.”

Questions about the regulations can be directed to Christopher Pajak, the Association’s HR consultant and director of Member Relations, at christopher.pajak@nycua.org, or (800) 342-9835, ext. 8188.