Texas Issued a Nationwide Injunction Blocking the Department of Labor’s “Overtime Rule”

Yesterday a federal court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Department of Labor’s “overtime rule” that was scheduled to go into effect on December 1.

What does this mean?  The new rule amended the minimum salary threshold for the “white collar” exceptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) minimum wage requirements, increasing the minimum salary to $913 per week (or $47,476 per year).  As a result of this injunction, the current salary minimum of $455 per week ($23,660 per year) will remain in effect – at least for now.

It is very likely that the Department of Labor will appeal this ruling or take other steps to get it overturned.  But those wheels of justice tend to turn rather slowly, so at least for the immediately foreseeable future, the existing salary threshold will remain in effect.  Of course, the duties test has not changed and that must also be met for an employee to be properly classified as exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA.