On November 22, 2016, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction prohibiting implementation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s new rules on the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white-collar exemptions. This means that the DOL's new regulations will not go into effect on December 1. The next step is for the federal judge to consider any additional evidence presented by the parties and decide whether to make the injunction permanent. This could take weeks or months.
If the judge issues a permanent injunction, the Secretary of Labor will then have the opportunity to appeal the judge's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Employers who have announced salary increases to comply with the new rules have three options:
- Choose not to make any changes until there is a final ruling from the appellate courts;
- Go forward with the announced changes;
- Go forward with some of the changes, but only those that you feel like you have to make or that is in your interest to make.
Should you have questions about this development, please contact William M. Furr, Chair, Labor & Employment Law, Willcox Savage.