HRI Policy Update – Fair Labor Standards Act

As you may have heard, last week a federal court granted a nationwide injunction against the implementation of the new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime rule, which increased the salary threshold for employees to remain exempt from overtime pay. It would have made employees nationwide who earn less than $47,476 annually eligible for overtime, Because of the injunction; the rule will not go into effect on December 1, 2016 as originally required by the Department of Labor, so the court can hear the case. This is a temporary injunction, so the rule still could go into effect, be reversed or modified.

Despite the injunction, HRI has decided to go forward with the changes implemented for Research Affiliates that are in line with current NIH salary guidance. If NIH changes that guidance, then we will review it and determine how best to proceed moving forward. We will also keep in place the changes for several part-time exempt employees whose effort was increased so that their salaries met the proposed threshold.

We will continue to monitor the status of this injunction and keep you informed if changes are needed.

If you or your HRI employees have any questions, we are happy to discuss them. Feel free to contact either myself at Marianne.Castelot@healthresearch.org or Karissa Benner at Karissa.Benner@healthresearch.org.