Overtime: DOL sets tentative deadline for final rules

by Christian Schappel

It appears as though the Obama administration isn’t afraid of how its changes to the FLSA’s overtime exemption rules will play in the court of public opinion. 

A prediction floating around — after the Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith announced the DOL’s changes to the overtime rules would be delayed until “late 2016” — was that the administration would wait until after the presidential election to unveil the final rules.
The thinking behind this hypothesis: The rules — which are sure to be wildly unpopular in the business community — could give the GOP another feather in its political cap, potentially helping it win the White House. That’s if the rules were released prior to the election.

DOL targeting July

Giving the GOP more campaigning ammo doesn’t appear to be a fear for the Obama administration, at least not yet. In the DOL’s fall 2015 regulatory agenda, the agency published that it’s targeting July 2016 for the release of the final rules.

The deadline isn’t set in stone, and July is still pretty far away, but it does provide clues as to where the DOL’s at with the rules.

Bottom line: Employers are most likely looking at the new rules being released prior to the election.

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