DOL Proposes to Increase the Minimum Salary for the “White Collar” Overtime Exemptions to $35,308

On March 7, 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, through its Acting Administrator Keith Sonderling, published the long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the “white collar” overtime exemption regulations. The DOL proposes to increase the minimum salary for exemption from $455 per week ($23,660 annualized) to $679 per week ($35,308 annualized). Employees with total annual compensation of $147,414 (including at least $679 per week paid on a salary basis) – up from the current $100,000 total annual compensation – would qualify for exemption under the test for highly compensated employees (HCE).