Compliance Stuff

National Labor Relations Board Chairman Marvin Kaplan’s term ended on Aug. 27, 2025; the Board remains without a quorum.  The Board is now down to a single member — Democrat David Prouty — and remains unable to issue decisions until two new appointees are confirmed. Kaplan’s departure follows two terms on the Board under both the first Trump Administration and the Biden Administration and marks a loss for the Board in the absence of his institutional knowledge. Although President Donald Trump has nominated Scott Mayer and James Murphy to fill two of the vacant seats, the Senate has not scheduled confirmation hearings, and the Board cannot act without a quorum of three members. As a result, Board decision-making is unlikely to resume before late fall, if not later.   Board Acting General Counsel (AGC) William Cowen released updated guidance on deferring unfair labor practice charges.  Memorandum GC 25-10  (Aug. 7, 2025). The guidance relies on the  Dubo Manufac...

On February 14, 2025, the Fifth Circuit denied the appellants’ petition for rehearing  en banc  in  Mayfield v. United States Dep’t of Labor— a  September 2024 decision  holding that the U.S. Department of Labor’s authority to “define” and “delimit” the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions includes the power to set a minimum salary for exemption. The dispute in  Mayfield  dates back to 2019, when the DOL issued a  final rule  raising the minimum salary required to qualify for most EAP exemptions from $455 per week to $684 per week.  Mayfield, a small business owner, challenged the rule, arguing that the DOL lacks, and has always lacked, the authority to define the EAP exemptions in terms of salary level (as opposed to by job duties)—an argument that has been embraced repeatedly by the Texas federal district courts (see  here  and  here ).  The district co...

  On September 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) authority to use a salary basis to define its white-collar overtime exemptions. Quick Hits The Fifth Circuit upheld the authority of the DOL to include a salary basis in the test in defining the white collar overtime exemptions. The ruling is a win for the DOL, which is currently defending its latest increase to the minimum salary thresholds for the white-collar exemptions. The Fifth Circuit, in  Mayfield v. U.S. Department of Labor , held that a 2019 DOL rule, which sought to raise the minimum salary requirement for the so-called white collar or executive, administrative, or professional (EAP) employee exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), “fell within the [DOL’s] explicitly delegated authority to define and delimit the terms of the Exemption.” The ruling is a significant win for the DOL as it defends its  new April 2024 rule  to further...

A Fifth Circuit panel heard oral argument on Wednesday, August 7, on whether Department of Labor (DOL) regulations imposing a salary requirement to satisfy the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is valid. The case on appeal, Mayfield v U.S. Department of Labor, does not address the minimum salary level increase that took effect July 1, 2024. Rather, the appeals court is considering an ongoing challenge to the DOL’s previous regulation implemented during the Trump administration that increased the salary level to $35,568. The lawsuit challenges the DOL’s authority to require any salary level . The plaintiff argues the statute, t he Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), does not impose a salary requirement for the executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions, and that the DOL regulation imposing such a requirement is inconsistent with the statute. A federal district court in Texas previously upheld the Trump DOL rule. (See Federal Court Upholds DOL’s Author...