In a court filing on June 30, 2017, the Department of Labor (DOL) under the Trump administration signaled that it would no longer defend a rule promulgated by the DOL under the Obama administration that nearly doubled the salary threshold for the executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees’ exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The rule was scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016; however a Federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction on November 22, 2016 that blocked the rule. The Obama administration appealed the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
In the June 30th court filing, the DOL told the Fifth Circuit that it intends to abandon the rule and will pursue new rulemaking at a later date that would set a more reasonable salary threshold for claiming the exemption.
