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The Department of Labor published its final rule on Sept. 27, 2019, increasing the threshold used to determine the exempt status of white-collar employees under the minimum wage and overtime rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act. While the new threshold in the final rule may require some small market newspapers to make adjustments, the increase – the first in 15 years – is far less than the agency’s final overtime rule in 2016.
The new rule goes into effect on January 1, 2020.
The final rule raises the threshold from $23,660 per year to $35,568 per year by reverting to the methodology used in the 2004 rule that focused on the 20th percentile of full-time wage earners in the lowest-income region of the country (identified as the South). The Labor Department under the Obama Administration issued a final rule in 2016 that would have raised the threshold to $47,476 per year with inflation-adjusted increases annually. This rule was rejected by a Federal Court in 2017.
Read the full story from Paul Boyle at News Media Alliance.