Along with CUPA-HR and a
number of other higher education associations, ACE submitted
comments Nov. 7 on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) plan to
update the salary level to qualify for the
so-called “white-collar” exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s
overtime pay requirements.
The proposal adheres closely to what the Obama administration
instituted in 2016, which was overturned by a federal court in 2017. The Trump
administration’s DOL then issued a new rule in 2019 that increased the
threshold to $35,568 per year in 2020. This is the level it remains at today.
The DOL is now proposing to raise the standard salary threshold
from its current level of $35,568 annually to $55,068—a nearly 55 percent
increase. Based on the most recent wage data, the DOL projects that the
threshold in the final rule will be $60,209, an increase of nearly 70 percent.
It also would raise the salary level for the “Highly Compensated Exemption” to
$143,988 from its current level of $107,432, a 34 percent increase. All
thresholds would be updated automatically every three years.
Given that the most recent update
to the minimum salary threshold took effect in January 2020, the groups said in
their comments that they do not believe DOL should increase the salary
threshold at this time. They also oppose the threshold level proposed in the
rule. Finally, the groups expressed doubt about whether DOL has authority to
implement its proposal for automatic updates and instead urged the agency to
propose future increases through notice and comment rulemaking that complies
with the Administrative Procedure Act.
College and university professors
and adjunct instructors are not covered by the salary threshold under DOL’s
current “teacher exemption,” provided they have a primary duty of teaching,
tutoring, instructing, or lecturing. Based on current DOL policy, the threshold
also likely does not apply to student workers, including teaching assistants
and research assistants. Researchers do not qualify for the exemption unless
they have significant teaching responsibilities.
According to Inside
Higher Ed, more than 33,000 comments on the rule
were filed before the deadline, many from colleges and universities. The
institutions responding said the changes “could mean millions more in expenses
and cuts in services to students, and many told the department they aren’t sure
where they’ll get the money to pay for it without raising tuition or seeing an
influx of money from state legislatures, which is unlikely,” Inside Higher Ed
reported.
The final rule is expected in the spring of 2024.