On December 1, 2016, the Department of Labor’s final rule on “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees” comes into effect. To maintain one of these exemptions, an employee’s compensation and primary job duties will have to satisfy the new regulatory requirements.
As we digest these FLSA changes, let us remember the original spirit of the law – to protect employees in earning a fair day’s pay. To be compliant, almost all organizations will make some level of job classification changes taking effect on December 1.
“With new changes to the law, almost every employer will be impacted and required to shift some exempt jobs – and employees – to Non-Exempt status.” – Linda Vandeventer, Director, Pay and Performance.
Keep these thoughts in mind as you consider your implementation:
- Best practice is to support these changes as leaders of the organization – be champions of change! Gain the support of other credible people in the organization, understand and plan for resistance, and persevere through the process.
- Craft detailed messaging to multiple audiences. Realize it will take more than one communication. Stick to the facts, use actual examples, and most of all answer the questions your employees will definitely have.
- Reassure employees who might change from exempt to non-exempt that this is not personal and in no way is a reflection of their performance level.
- Think about potential impacts to programs other than pay – i.e. vacation accruals, relocation, severance as sometimes these benefit levels can vary by exempt vs non-exempt status.
- Most importantly, think long-term and plan for the next wave of changes on January 1, 2020.
Learn all you can. Download our recent FYI on the topic.
Please contact Linda, Nancy Vary, or Amy Heinze of our FLSA Center of Excellence for a complimentary 30-minute discussion of your organization’s situation.