The American Bankers Association today joined 87 trade associations in a letter urging the Department of Labor to extend, to Sept. 1, the implementation date of the first increase to the minimum salary threshold under a new final rule altering the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Last month, DOL issued a final rule that significantly increases the number of employees who are subject to the FLSA’s overtime and minimum wage requirements. The rule was issued over objections from ABA and other industry groups that increasing the salary threshold would harm employees by limiting remote and flexible scheduling options, limit career advancement, and reduce access to incentive pay and other benefits. The first increase in the salary level—which provides a “floor” beneath which all employees are classified as hourly workers—goes into effect July 1, only two months after the rule was issued.
The two-month implementation period provides insufficient time for banks and other businesses to “analyze the rule, determine what changes to their operations and payrolls will be necessary, explain to the impacted workers how and why their pay, titles or workplace responsibilities will change, and then implement those changes,” the associations said. Employer organizations representing nonfinancial companies are considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the rule.
