{"id":10686,"date":"2026-05-15T04:25:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/department-of-labor-restores-salary-levels-for-flsa-white-collar-exemptions-littler\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:25:34","slug":"department-of-labor-restores-salary-levels-for-flsa-white-collar-exemptions-littler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/department-of-labor-restores-salary-levels-for-flsa-white-collar-exemptions-littler\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Labor Restores Salary Levels for FLSA White Collar Exemptions | Littler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"html-view-content\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg\" readability=\"38.56311934511\">\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">On May 14, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/newsroom\/releases\/whd\/whd20260514\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a> the publication of a technical amendment designed to unwind a 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.littler.com\/news-analysis\/asap\/department-labor-publishes-final-rule-update-salary-level-overtime-eligibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">regulation<\/a> and restore the 2019 regulation establishing the salary level needed to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) \u201cwhite collar\u201d overtime exemptions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">In 2024, the DOL published a final rule substantially raising the salary thresholds needed to qualify as an executive, administrative, and\/or professional employee exempt from the FLSA\u2019s minimum wage and overtime requirements. That rule was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.littler.com\/news-analysis\/asap\/federal-court-strikes-down-rule-raising-salary-threshold-white-collar-overtime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vacated<\/a> by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in November 2024. While the DOL initially appealed that court order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the DOL stipulated to the dismissal of that appeal earlier this month in anticipation of WHD\u2019s formal abandonment of the 2024 rule following the change in administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">The technical amendment will formally roll back the 2024 salary thresholds for these white collar exemptions and restore the 2019 levels as follows:<\/p>\n<p><!-- table wrap --><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">Practically, the DOL\u2019s amendment does not alter the WHD\u2019s enforcement posture, as the WHD has applied the 2019 salary thresholds contained in the DOL\u2019s latest technical amendment since the 2024 rule was vacated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">This technical amendment provides formal certainty for employers as to the regulatory regime covering FSLA white collar exemptions, as well as confirming once and for all the salary thresholds that allow employees to fit within one or more of the FLSA\u2019s white collar exemptions. Employers should remain aware of all requirements for qualifying as exempt, including the now-established salary level amount as well as the \u201csalary basis\u201d requirement, the applicable \u201cduties\u201d test(s), and any state-specific deviations from the FLSA\u2019s tests (including states with a higher salary level requirement and\/or more stringent \u201cduties\u201d requirements). Companies with questions about the requirements for qualifying as exempt under the FLSA and state law should work with experienced counsel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 14, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the publication of a technical amendment designed to unwind a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2821,462,6947,4355,3276,7282,7497,6027,2409,1257],"class_list":["post-10686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-collar","tag-department","tag-exemptions","tag-flsa","tag-labor","tag-levels","tag-littler","tag-restores","tag-salary","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}