Overtime Rule Published – Comment Period Now Open

The Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) proposed overtime rule was finally published in the Federal Register on March 22.  As described in a previous news digest article, the proposed rule would update the salary level for exempt employees from $23,660 to $35,308, and the salary level for defining highly compensated employees from $100,000 to $147,414 per year.  Comments on the proposed rule should be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov, in the rulemaking docket RIN 1235-AA20.  Comments must be submitted by 11:59 pm on May 21, 2019.  An extension of the comment period for this rule is unlikely given the DOL’s desire for the final rule to be effective by January 1, 2020.

EEO-1 Pay Data

As indicated in an earlier news digest article, on March 4, a federal court ordered the reinstatement of Component 2 pay data collection in the EEO-1 survey.  The EEOC opened the survey portal as planned on March 18, but is only accepting Component 1 data.  The EEOC released a statement indicating that it is “working diligently on next steps in the wake of the court’s order . . ., which vacated the OMB Stay on collection of Component 2 EEO-1 pay data.  The EEOC will provide further information as soon as possible.”

According to published reports, on March 19, the Court ordered the EEOC to provide guidance by April 3 about how it will collect Component 2 data from employers.  We will continue to monitor this developing story.