The Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rule has made its way to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review. OMB approval is required under a 1993 executive order that requires cross-agency approval for “economically significant” regulatory actions of this magnitude.
The rule would set the salary threshold that employers would use to determine which employees are eligible to receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. The current threshold, enacted during the Trump administration, became effective in January 2020, when the weekly minimum salary for overtime exemptions increased from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $684 per week ($35,568 per year).
The Labor Department first formally listed its plans to publish a new overtime final rule in its regulatory agenda in 2021 and then spent several months holding virtual town halls to gather initial input from stakeholders. A proposed rule was expected to be published in spring 2022, but publication was delayed to October 2022 before being bumped to May and then August.
The August timeframe is still listed online, but it’s unclear now when the proposed rule might be finalized. It still could be 100 days from when the proposal landed in the hands of OMB last week. OMB has 10 days to make a preliminary determination of whether the rule is “economically significant” and then has an additional 90 days to review the rule.
“However, this 90-day period may be extended indefinitely by the DOL or for as many as 30 days by the OMB,” according to XpertHR.
