On November 22, 2016, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas granted a nationwide, preliminary injunction that at least temporarily blocks the Department of Labor (DOL) from adopting or implementing the new white collar salary threshold regulations that would have essentially doubled the minimum salary requirements for exemption from overtime from $23,660 to $47,476. It is anticipated that the DOL will appeal this decision and will ask the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the appeal on an expedited basis. It also is possible that if the appeal lasts until after January 20th, the Trump Administration may simply drop the appeal and allow the lower court's injunction to remain in place.

What Are Employers Supposed To Do Now?

Our advice is to: (1) stay tuned to see what happens next with the appeal of this preliminary injunction ruling because it might be overturned, and; (2) stay flexible and ready to get into compliance quickly if the injunction is struck down and these DOL regulations actually do go into effect. So, for those of you who were taking steps to comply with the DOL's new minimum salary basis requirement by December 1, you can still continue with that PLANNING, but you might want to consider HOLDING OFF with the actual IMPLEMENTATION of such plans until this temporary injunction issue is resolved.