On December 1, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor's new overtime rule will go into effect. Most significantly, the minimum salary an employee must be paid to qualify for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions will increase to $913 per week (or $47,476 per year). Additionally, the salary threshold under the highly compensated employee exemption will increase from $100,000 to $134,004. The new rule does not change the duties test for these or any other exemptions. That said, the rule provides employers with an opportunity to audit their classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt based on both the duties and salary tests in order to correct any past misclassifications. While the new rule does not cover independent contractors, employers may also want to take the opportunity to audit their current classification of any workers as independent contractors, since the Department of Labor also has adopted a new "economic realities" test to restrict the classification of workers on this basis. For further discussion of this new test, please click here for the Department of Labor's Fact Sheet.

While you may have heard of litigation challenging the new overtime rule, it is unlikely that the implementation date will be delayed or that the new salary thresholds will be lowered before December 1. Accordingly, NOW is the time to audit your exempt positions in order to make any adjustments needed to ensure compliance, while living within your budget.