U.S. Department of Labor
FLSA Overtime Security Advisor
NOTICE: On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (Department) announced a final rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees, which will take effect on July 1, 2024. The final rule updates and revises the regulations issued under section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act implementing the exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees. Revisions include increases to the standard salary level and the highly compensated employee total annual compensation threshold, and a mechanism that provides for the timely and efficient updating of these earnings thresholds to reflect current earnings data.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Overtime Security Advisor provides employers and employees with the information they need to understand Federal overtime security requirements. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which was first enacted in 1938, includes minimum wage, overtime pay and child labor protections for workers in the United States. The FLSA has always included exemptions for certain executive, administrative, professional and outside sales workers. More recently, the Congress added exemptions for certain types of occupations in the computer field.
To help workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under the Regulations, Part 541, the Department has developed this FLSA Overtime Security Advisor. DOL recently updated these regulations which became effective January 1, 2020. The Overtime Security Advisor is intended to help workers and employers identify:
- Those workers who are entitled to the minimum wage and overtime pay protections of the FLSA; and
- Those who, by law, are not subject to the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
Nothing in the FLSA or the Department's Regulations prevent an employer from paying a worker at or above the minimum wage or overtime pay even if the worker is not, by law, subject to the minimum wage or overtime pay requirements.
The Overtime Security Advisor is intended to provide only general guidance. Actual application must be made on a case-by-case basis.
The Labor Department - which has set new records for aggressive Wage and Hour enforcement - now has strong new standards in place to better protect workers' pay. As an employer, if you have additional questions to ensure that your workers are properly classified, please call 1-866-4USWAGE. As a worker, if you feel you are improperly being denied overtime, please go to www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/ where you can learn more about your FLSA rights and be directed on how to file a complaint with the Department of Labor, or if you have questions call 1-866-4USWAGE.
For information on employment situations prior to January 1, 2020 or about other Wage and Hour Division matters, please contact the Wage and Hour Division or find the office nearest you.
Before using this Advisor, you may want to review a brief explanation of what the FLSA requires and what the FLSA does NOT require.
The FLSA Overtime Security Advisor is one of a series of elaws (Employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses) Advisors developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to help employers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities under Federal employment laws. To view the entire list of elaws Advisors please visit the elaws website. To learn more about DOL's efforts to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards in place to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation's workforce, visit the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) website.
