Robert Boonin Quoted in Employment Law Daily Regarding Proposed New Overtime Rules

Robert A. Boonin, member in Dykema’s Labor & Employment practice resident in the firm’s Detroit and Ann Arbor offices, was quoted in the Employment Law Daily article, “DOL issues proposed white-collar overtime rule,” regarding the Department of Labor’s (DOL) long-anticipated proposed rule to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime regulation.

In the article, Boonin points out that if the new changes become law, many employers will have to dramatically change the way they've been doing business—specifically, by either no longer letting “hands-on” managers multi-task, or by reclassifying lower-level managers as nonexempt. He also stated that employers will have to increase the pay of lower-paid exempt employees in order to continue to treat them as exempt.

Boonin also explains that employers may structure their operations so that these employees do not work more than 40 hours, which could result in a net pay reduction. Or, employers may reconfigure the employees’ base rates so that, with overtime pay factored in, the employees do not earn more money if they continue to work their current schedules while being non-exempt. Therefore, even though this change would disrupt the way many businesses operate, it won’t necessarily alter the way hours are scheduled or add more money to employee paychecks.