The U.S. Department of Labor recently approved updates to the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) regulations regarding minimum salary requirements for exempt staff and non-teaching faculty. The change raises the existing salary minimum of $23,660 to $47,476 regardless of employment percentage (fte). Employees who do not meet specific exemptions and whose current salaries do not meet the required minimum will be designated as eligible for cash overtime. Employers are required to implement the change by December 1, 2016.
With the change to the FLSA regulation, we face some difficult decisions for the next fiscal year. As a University System, we are faced with the following options:
· designate employees who do not meet the new minimum as overtime eligible (potentially nonexempt status); or
· increase the salaries of affected employees to the new FLSA minimum.
