Overtime compliance is challenging, but employers have tools at their disposal, including wage and hour audits and safe harbor policies, to limit their liability.
An audit can be particularly effective, said Robert Boonin, an attorney with Dykema in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 in New Orleans on June 14. An audit conducted by a knowledgeable consultant or lawyer can shield employers from double damages, commonly referred to as liquidated damages, he noted at a concurrent session, "Overtime Compliance—It's Not as Simple as It May Look."
Overtime pay is due to all nonexempt employees for all hours actually worked over 40 in a workweek at the rate of 1.5 times the employee's regular hourly rate of pay.
The broadest exempt group of employees are white-collar employees, which include:
New Overtime Rule on Horizon
New overtime proposed regulations are on deck to be released possibly as soon as this summer that might recommend increasing the current exempt salary level of $684 per week—$35,368 per year—to a higher amount, Boonin noted. This amount might be to the $912 per week or $47,466 per year that the blocked overtime rule put forward by the Obama administration had provided.
Or even higher. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would like to see an exempt salary threshold in the $80,000s, Boonin remarked.
The duties tests...
FERNDALE, Wash. — On March 30, 2026, Merissa G. Saenz, 27, was sentenced in Whatcom County Superior Court after pleading guilty to malicious prosecution and entering an Alford plea to making a fal...