UPDATE NOVEMBER 15, 2024 – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas just issued its ruling invalidating the entirety of DOL’s overtime final rule. In his ruling, Judge Jordan stated that while DOL has the authority to define and delimit the terms of the overtime exemption, “that authority ‘is not unbounded.’” He explained, “the minimum salary level imposed by the 2024 Rule ‘effectively eliminates’ consideration of whether an employee performs ‘bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity’ duties in favor of what amounts to a salary-only test.” He also said that the Department’s automatic updates to the… Read More »
[Source: R. David Wentz, J.D., CHFC, Tax Favored Benefits, Inc., 07.2016 | Keywords: DOL, Employee Benefits, Retirement] On April 6, 2016 the Department of Labor released a new regulation generally referred to as the “Fiduciary Rule” which, under Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), will serve to significantly expand the activities which determine whether one is considered a Fiduciary by providing “investment advice” with the resulting duties and responsibilities. The final rule is not applicable until April 10, 2017 with a transitional period for full compliance running until January 1, 2018. The Fiduciary Rule applies to all ERISA-covered… Read More »
[Source: Bob Evnen, Woods & Aitken LLP, 07.2016 | Keywords: DOL, Employment Policies, Overtime] Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (DOL) released the highly anticipated final rule amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay regulations. The newly released rule consists of 496 pages of explanatory preambleÖand 12 pages of regulatory amendments. The nuts and bolts of what you need to know about the momentous changes contained within the rule are as follows: 1. The new rule is effective December 1, 2016. You must act now to implement any necessary changes prior to the effective… Read More »
[Author: Tom Junge, Iowa Field Director, 2015 | Keywords: Regulatory Compliance, Department of Labor, DOL] Recently, three consumer product (CP) dealers reported that they were audited by the Department of Labor. As a result of these audits, two dealers discovered they were not adjusting commissions for overtime for their technicians and parts personnel. According to one dealer, the auditor told them that by paying a commission, they were in effect keeping the workers base hourly wage lower, thus avoiding higher overtime pay. By adding the commission into the base rate, the worker receives the full overtime benefit as if their base wage… Read More »
