Uncertainty persists as employers navigate federal wage and hour compliance in the second Trump Administration. Several final rules issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) during the Biden Administration have been mired in ongoing litigation. The DOL has signaled a retreat from the defense of these lawsuits and has begun to roll back other regulations.
As the federal government eases its regulatory grip, employers must continue to comply with more stringent or otherwise different standards that apply under state and local wage and hour laws.
The DOL issued a final rule on April 26, 2024, to increase the minimum salary threshold for application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) “white collar” exemptions. The first of what was to be a two-stage increase took effect on July 1, 2024, adopting a sharp, two-stage increase in the minimum salary floor. On Nov. 15, 2024, a federal district court in Texas invalidated the rule, holding that the DOL exceeded its rulemaking authority. The court found that the new rule set the salary threshold so high that it effectively rendered toothless the “duties test” which (unlike the minimum salary test) is expressly set forth in the statute. The decision came as a relief to the business community, which was staring down an imminent, even steeper minimum salary increase.
The DOL appealed the district court’s decision. On April 24, 2025, following the change in administration, however,...
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