Compliance Stuff

  In a major win for the Department of Labor, a federal appeals court just ruled that the agency has the power to set a salary basis floor in order for workers to be considered exempt from overtime pay. Yesterday’s ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was by no means a slam dunk given the Supreme Court recently ripped a great deal of power from federal agencies and told federal judges they should exercise their own independent authority when ruling on these types of rules. But a three-judge panel from the conservative appeals court agreed with the agency and upheld the salary basis floor just months before a new rule takes effect on January 1 to raise the minimum salary level to about $59K . What do you need to know about the ruling and what should you do in the coming months to prepare for the impending effective date? What Were We Arguing About? Let’s start by taking a big step back. Congress passed a federal wage and hour law almost 90 years ago – the Fair Labor Standar...

Federal administrative law is largely about policing delegations of power from Congress to Executive Branch agencies, and the administrative law concept of “deference” is about delegation of interpretative power over ambiguous law.  That is, courts need to decide what it means when lawmakers leave ambiguity in a statute or regulation. To illustrate, imagine a simple rule like “no vehicles in the park.”  See H.L.A. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, 71 Harv. L. Rev. 593, 607 (1958) .  A rule like this could appear in a statute passed by a legislature; it could also appear in an agency regulation. For now, imagine the rule appears in an organic statute that creates a Parks Department and authorizes it to implement the statute via rules and regulations.  The Parks Department clearly could promulgate a rule specifically banning cars in the park.  But what about baby strollers, which might or might not count as “vehicles?” Under the overturned Che...

There has been a lot written about the recent Supreme Court decision reversing the 1984 decision in Chevron (Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984)) and the Chevron Doctrine that became its legacy, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024) . Conservative proponents have cheered the collapse of the “administrative state,” while more liberal advocates forecast legal chaos. Much of the public outcry and debate focuses on environmental (including climate change), health care (including drug development and approval), public land management, and many other regulatory schemes.  In the employment law realm, commentary has generally been limited to the potential battles in the wage and hour, OSHA, and other safety regulations. The authors have found little, if anything, with respect to impact on Executive Order 11246, VEVRAA or Section 503 regulations. This short blog provides the authors’ initial thoughts on the potential imp...