The overtime rule was originally scheduled to take effect Dec. 1 and would have raised the exempt salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476. Employers were left with the choice of raising the salary of employees within the range of the old and new thresholds to $47,476 or reclassifying them as nonexempt. But after a judge on Nov. 22 barred the rule from taking effect, employers aren't sure what to do.
Promised Pay Increases
"Employers should carefully consider all communications to employees, particularly promised pay increases that may have triggered employee reliance," said Kathleen Anderson, an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg in Fort Wayne, Ind.
"If annual increases can be given to those employees who were expecting an increase to at least $47,476 per year, then that should be communicated as well," said Alfred Robinson Jr., an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Washington, D.C., and former acting administrator of the DOL's Wage and Hour Division.
Back-and-Forth Changes
But "if employers decide to undo already-implemented changes, they should emphasize the advantages of the original compensation method," Swartz said. "For example, they should emphasize the flexibility that exempt status affords and the benefits that come with exempt status. Of course, an employer's messaging will depend on the number of impacted employees and the company's internal assessment of employees' reaction to the back-and-forth changes."
