Compliance Stuff

On September 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit joined four other federal courts and held that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has statutory authority to impose a minimum salary threshold to qualify for the executive, administrative, and professional overtime exemptions (EAP Exemption) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA ).  Mayfield and R.U.M. Enterprises, Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor , No. 23-507-24 (5th Cir. Sept. 11, 2024) . The Fifth Circuit’s decision was in response to a legal challenge related to the 2019 DOL Final Rule on overtime pay, which increased the minimum salary requirement for the EAP Exemption . While seen as a win for the DOL in its effort to enforce its more recent 2024 Final Rule, the ruling does not address the validity of the 2024 Final Rule, and leaves open other possible challenges to the 2024 Final Rule. Overview of the DOL Minimum Salary Rules In 2019, the DOL promulgated a new version of its “Minimum Salary Rule,” raising t...

  On August 20, 2024, in   Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission , No. 3:24-cv-00986-E (N.D. Tex.), the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted summary judgment to the p laintiffs and ordered the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) non-compete rule (the “Rule”) to be set aside with respect to all employers nationally and that it shall not be enforced or take effect on September 4, 2024. The FTC may immediately appeal the court’s decision to the Fifth Circuit. Repeating the same reasoning it reached in granting a  preliminary injunction  on July 3, 2024, the court held that: ( 1) the FTC exceeded its statutory authority in issuing the Rule; and (2) the Rule was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”).  The court found that Section 6(g) of the FTC Act, which the FTC relied on to issue the Rule, does not grant it authority to issue substantive rules, but is instead a “housekeeping statute,” which only a...