A federal district judge in Texas last week at
least temporarily blocked the Department of Labor’s (DOL) overtime rule
set to go into effect Dec. 1, a decision that could have a substantial
impact on colleges and universities.
In a last-minute development on an issue for which many campuses have
been preparing for months, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III
granted a temporary injunction in response to a legal challenge filed by
21 states and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after the final version of
the regulation was released in May.
Currently, professional and managerial employees making more than
$23,660 a year are generally exempt from federal Fair Labor Standards
Act (FLSA) overtime regulation. Under the new rule, employees would have
had to be paid more than $47,476 to be exempt. Those making below that
amount would have had to be classified as hourly workers eligible for
overtime pay, which would have impacted a wide array of non-faculty
employees—from athletics coaches and trainers to admissions recruiters
and student affairs officers—whose work is not well suited to hourly
wage status.
DOL released its proposed rule in July 2015, after being charged by
President Obama in 2014 to revise the regulation governing exemptions to
FLSA overtime pay requirements. Along with a number of higher education
associations, ACE submitted comments on the proposed rule that identified a range of problems.
The Obama administration likely will appeal the injunction. At the
moment, the timing of further developments in the case either at the
district court or a federal appeals court is unclear.