Wage and Hour Division July 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains exemptions issued by the Department of Labor (the Department) from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or the Act) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). This notice includes the following: 2015-07, Rock Wool Manufacturing Company Salaried Retirement Plan, D-11786; 2015-08, Wells Fargo Company, D-11752; 2015-09, Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, D-11782; 2015-10, Eli Lilly and Company and Elco Insurance Company Limited, L- 11784; 2015-11, Robert A. Handelman Roth IRA No. 2, D-11798; 2015-12, Roofers Local 195 Pension Fund and Roofers Local 195 Joint Apprenticeship Training Fund, D-11809 and L-11810; and, 2015-13, First Security Group, Inc. 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan, D-11826.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) guarantees a minimum wage and overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one- half times the employee's regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. While these protections extend to most workers, the FLSA does provide a number of exemptions. The Department of Labor (Department) proposes to update and revise the regulations issued under the FLSA implementing the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employees. This exemption is referred to as the FLSA's ``EAP'' or ``white collar'' exemption. To be considered exempt, employees must meet certain minimum tests related to their primary job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than a specified minimum amount. The standard salary level required for exemption is currently $455 a week ($23,660 for a full-year worker) and was last updated in 2004. By way of this rulemaking, the Department seeks to update the salary level to ensure that the FLSA's intended overtime protections are fully implemented, and to simplify the identification of nonexempt employees, thus making the EAP exemption easier for employers and workers to understand. The Department also proposes automatically updating the salary level to prevent the level from becoming outdated with the often lengthy passage of time between rulemakings. Lastly, the Department is considering whether revisions to the duties tests are necessary in order to ensure that these tests fully reflect the purpose of the exemption.