The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced April 23, 2024 it will increase the minimum annual salary that is required to make certain white-collar employees to be eligible for overtime (often referred to as the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions from the Fair Labor Standard Act’s overtime requirements). Starting July 1, the threshold will increase from $35,568 per year ($684 per week) to $43,888 (or $844 weekly), and it will increase again with the new year, to $58,656 (or $1,128 per week).

The DOL also said that it will issue a rule that will automatically update this threshold every three years using current wage data. That update is currently set to occur on July 1, 2027, but the DOL acknowledged that those updates may be postponed if the department chooses to engage in rulemaking to change its methodology or update mechanism.

Long-time readers of SuperVision may remember a substantial change to the salary basis, including a proposal to revise threshold automatically, was proposed by the DOL in 2015 and was enjoined and repealed in the Courts under a theory that the DOL had exceeded its authority. Similar challenges to this revision are expected. 

If the rules go into effect, the changes will expand overtime pay eligibility to approximately four million U.S. workers, according to the agency.