New OT rules create ‘perfect storm’ for lawsuits, attorney says

by Christian Schappel

Employers are eager to see what the DOL’s new overtime rules will look like this summer — not because they’re fans, but because they want to see how much their FLSA compliance efforts will have to change in a very short period of time (within 60 days, most likely). 

Employers don’t know exactly what the rules will look like, but they do know the requirements — like a higher salary threshold for exempt employees — will make more employees OT-eligible.

An increase (and likely a large one to boot) in the number of non-exempt employees is scary enough for employers. But it likely won’t end there.

Add to that a potential increase in the complexity of the “white collar duties” tests, widespread minimum wage hikes and the attention federal regulators are paying to independent contractor classifications — and you’ve what employment law attorney Richard Alfred described to Fortune as “a perfect storm for new lawsuits.”

Alfred, who heads up the wage-and-hour practice at the law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP, told Fortune he expects the number of overtime lawsuits alone to increase to about 9,000 this year. That would roughly be a 10% increase in the number of lawsuits filed in 2015 — a number which stood at 8,160, according to Alfred.

Two big reasons for the potential increase in lawsuits include:

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