MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOGIN
  • SIGN UP FREE

CFO Daily News

MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Payments and Transactions
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
    • Supply Chain
    • IT

Ex-DOL admin offers alarming preview of what could happen with new OT rule

Jared Bilski
by Jared Bilski
March 22, 2018
  • Accounting
  • Employment Law
3 minute read
  • SHARE ON

While the majority of industry experts expect the DOL to create a new overtime rule that sets the salary threshold somewhere in the $33K ballpark, there’s at least one person who sees a scenario where employers will have to comply with the originally proposed $47K threshold. And there’s good reason to take what she says very seriously. 

That’s because the person we’re referring to is Tammy McCutchen, a former DOL administrator and current principal at Littler Mendelson who helped write the last round of changes to the DOL’s overtime regs.

At the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 2018 Employment Law and Legislative Conference, McCutchen said she sees a perfect storm of factors that could lead directly back to where we started in the overtime-change drama: An FLSA reg requiring all employers to pay overtime anyone making less than $913 per week or $47,476 per year.

For starters, there’s the whole injunction thing. As we’ve covered previously, the injunction essentially called into question the DOL’s ability to a salary threshold as high as it did in the first place. According to HR Dive, McCutchen said she was “worried because we still have [an] active 5th Circuit appeal.”

That’s a legitimate concern, but if the Trump DOL proposes a new OT rule while the Obama-era one is stayed, wouldn’t that essentially take care of the appeal concerns?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. As things currently stand, the DOL is expected to propose its latest changes to the overtime rule in October. But the agency has never been known for its expediency. As McCutchen puts it, reg deadlines “are never met … ever. If they publish [the proposed rule) October 2018 it will be a freaking miracle.”

So assuming the agency does pull off a “freaking miracle” and gets the regs proposed by October, that puts the final rule into effect in late 2019 — assuming things are running on schedule.

‘All of a sudden we’re in 2020’

Now here’s where things can go off the rails, according to McCutchen. If there is a delay in the DOL’s overtime rulemaking process, then “all of a sudden we’re in 2020.”

McCutchen put forward the following hypothetical to illustrate why this is so important:

“What happens if Republicans don’t win back the White House [and still don’t have] a new final rule? You’ve got the 5th Circuit appeal alive and well, and now that DOL is going defend that [$47K] salary level very vigorously.”

If that happens and the 5th Circuit lifts the injunction, a mandate would follow within 30 days and, McCutchen says, employers would have to be in compliance.

While HR pros wait this out, McCutchen offers the following advice to employers: “If you have plans [for complying with the Obama-era OT regs] that you didn’t implement, I hope you didn’t throw them away.”

Because if McCutchen’s perfect storm does hit, those OT compliance plans you worked so hard on a few years ago will certainly come in handy.

This story was originally published on our sister website, HR Morning.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest Finance News

With CFO Daily News arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

Sign up for a free CFO Daily News membership and get our newsletter!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CFO Daily News Logo
  • ABOUT CFO DAILY NEWS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • WRITE FOR US
  • CONTACT
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Payments and Transactions
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control
  • Supply Chain
  • IT

CFO Daily News, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day’s headlines, CFO Daily News delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Copyright © 2021 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

preloader