A federal district court in Texas has granted a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Labor’s new overtime rule that was set to take effect on December 1, 2016, which more than doubled the required salary level to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act “white collar” overtime exemptions (Nevada et al. v. U.S. Department of Labor et al., No. 4:16-CV-00731). If an employer has already notified an employee of a salary increase effective December 1 or already made the change, it may be too difficult to undo that change or communicate that the change will not be made. For employers who have yet to communicate the change, the ruling may allow a sigh of relief, eliminating the obligation to increase wages for some employees, in order to continue to meet the exemption requirements or scrapping plans to reclassify workers from salaried exempt to hourly non-exempt. However, if the decision is reversed by the federal appellate court, and the employer has not been in compliance on the December 1 effective date, a question arises: whether the existence of the preliminary injunction precludes any liability between the December 1, 2016 effective date and the date that the Court of Appeals issues its decision. For additional information, see http://www.jacksonlewis.com/publication/texas-court-grants-nationwide-preliminary-injunction-enjoining-department-labor-implementing-or-enforcing-regulation
United States