Update: An administration official has confirmed that a new overtime rule was sent to OMB.
Dive Brief:
- A new overtime rule proposal is heading to the the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, according to multiple sources.
- OMB's regulatory office has no deadline by which it must review the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) rule but the move indicates that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be published for public comment in the near future, according to Fortney & Scott, one of the law firms reporting the submission.
- Most likely, an NPRM will appear in March, according to Tammy McCutchen, a former DOL Wage and Hour Division administrator and principal at Littler Mendelson. McCutchen, who said she confirmed the news independently, also said she expects DOL to set a salary level in the low- to mid-$30,000s.
Dive Insight:
The regulations, which set a salary threshold for overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), have been in limbo for years.
Today's threshold remains at $23,660, despite efforts by the Obama administration to raise it to $47,476. President Donald Trump's DOL has said from the beginning that it is on board with raising the threshold, but not to the level previously proposed. The agency delayed its rulemaking several times, but now appears ready to meet its most recently stated goal of March 2019.
Some feared that the continued delays could lead to a perfect storm that would put the Obama-era threshold into effect with only 30 days notice to employers. While an NPRM is the first step in preventing such action, McCutchen noted that if DOL does not finalize a new rule before the 2020 presidential election and Trump does not win a second term, the threat remains.
