Coalition Comments on DOL’s Overtime Rule

ARTBA and its allies at the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity (“PPWO”) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor on the agency’s proposal to raise the salary threshold for the executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employee exemptions (the “EAP exemption”) from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). They said the proposed rule will result in large numbers of employees being reclassified as non-exempt, with significant consequences for both the reclassified employees and their employers.

PPWO is deeply concerned that such reclassification will:

• Harm the ability of employers to provide, and employees to take advantage of, remote work and flexible scheduling options which have become increasingly popular since being introduced during the pandemic and also help alleviate the growing childcare crisis.
• Limit career advancement opportunities for employees.
• Reduce employee access to a variety of additional benefits, including incentive pay.
• Limit employers’ ability to provide employees with mobile devices and remote electronic access, further limiting employee flexibility.
• Result in employees in the same job classification (for the same employer) being classified and treated differently based on regional cost-of-living differences, facility profitability, or other factors that impact budget.
• Force employees to be reassigned or let go as employers make operational changes needed to achieve the organization’s mission under new pay and staffing paradigms.
• Trigger declines in employee morale, particularly in cases where peers remain exempt since exempt status is often seen as a higher status.
• Increase FLSA litigation based on off-the-clock and regular rate of pay claims; and • Introduce other legal and operational issues, such as increased administrative costs.