{
  "id": "R45722",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R45722",
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  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 606286,
      "date": "2019-10-11",
      "retrieved": "2019-10-16T22:23:08.824232",
      "title": "Overtime Exemptions in the Fair Labor Standards Act for White-Collar Employees: Frequently Asked Questions",
      "summary": "The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938, is the main federal law that establishes general wage and hour standards for most, but not all, private and public sector employees. Among other protections, the FLSA establishes that covered nonexempt employees must be compensated at one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked over 40 hours in a workweek.\nThe FLSA also establishes certain exemptions from its general labor market standards. One of the major exemptions to the overtime provisions in the FLSA is for bona fide \u201cexecutive, administrative, and professional\u201d employees (the \u201cEAP\u201d or \u201cwhite collar\u201d exemptions). The FLSA grants authority to the Secretary of Labor to define and delimit the EAP exemption \u201cfrom time to time.\u201d To qualify for this exemption from the FLSA\u2019s overtime pay requirement, an employee must be salaried (the \u201csalary basis\u201d test); perform specified executive, administrative, or professional duties (the \u201cduties\u201d test); and earn above an established salary level threshold (the \u201csalary level\u201d test).\nIn September 2019, the Secretary of Labor published a final rule to make changes to the EAP exemptions. The 2019 final rule is effective on January 1, 2020. The major change made by the 2019 final rule is increasing the standard salary level threshold for the salary test from the previous level of $455 per week to $684 per week. The 2019 final rule does not change the duties and responsibilities that employees must perform to be exempt. Thus, the 2019 final rule would mostly affect EAP employees at salary levels between $455 and $684 per week in 2020. The Department of Labor (DOL) estimates that about 5.4 million workers would be affected in the first year, including about 1.3 million EAP employees who would become newly entitled to overtime pay and an additional 4.1 million workers who would have overtime protection clarified and thereby strengthened.\nThis report answers frequently asked questions about the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the EAP exemptions, and the 2019 final rule that defines and delimits the EAP exemptions.",
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      "topics": [
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          "source": "IBCList",
          "id": 4942,
          "name": "Labor Standards"
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    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 598268,
      "date": "2019-05-15",
      "retrieved": "2019-05-15T22:18:35.192683",
      "title": "Overtime Exemptions in the Fair Labor Standards Act for White-Collar Employees: Frequently Asked Questions",
      "summary": "The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938, is the main federal law that establishes general wage and hour standards for most, but not all, private and public sector employees. Among other protections, the FLSA establishes that covered nonexempt employees must be compensated at one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked over 40 hours in a workweek.\nThe FLSA also establishes certain exemptions from its general labor market standards. One of the major exemptions to the overtime provisions in the FLSA is for bona fide \u201cexecutive, administrative, and professional\u201d employees (the \u201cEAP\u201d or \u201cwhite collar\u201d exemptions). The FLSA grants authority to the Secretary of Labor to define and delimit the EAP exemption \u201cfrom time to time.\u201d To qualify for this exemption from the FLSA\u2019s overtime pay requirement, an employee must be salaried (the \u201csalary basis\u201d test); perform specified executive, administrative, or professional duties (the \u201cduties\u201d test); and earn above an established salary level threshold (the \u201csalary level\u201d test).\nIn March 2019, the Secretary of Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to make changes to the EAP exemptions. The 2019 proposed rule would become effective around January 2020. The major changes in the 2019 proposed rule include increasing the standard salary level threshold from the previous level of $455 per week to $679 per week and committing the Department of Labor (DOL) to updating the EAP exemptions every four years through the rulemaking process. The 2019 proposed rule does not change the duties and responsibilities that employees must perform to be exempt. Thus, the 2019 proposed rule would affect EAP employees at salary levels between $455 and $679 per week in 2020. DOL estimates that about 4.9 million workers would be affected in the first year, including about 1.3 million EAP employees who would become newly entitled to overtime pay and an additional 3.6 million workers who would have overtime protection clarified and thereby strengthened.\nThis report answers frequently asked questions about the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the EAP exemptions, and the 2019 proposed rule that would define and delimit the EAP exemptions.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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          "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45722",
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      "topics": []
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  "topics": [
    "Economic Policy"
  ]
}