Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Overtime Exemption Regulation
Updated as of November 20, 2024
On November 15, 2024, a federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Texas to vacate the 2024 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) . The ruling strikes down all components of the 2024 rule, meaning both the July 2024 and January 2025 salary thresholds are no longer in effect, and the three-year automatic updates will not take place. The decision applies to all covered employers and employees under the FLSA nationwide.
As a result of the November 15, 2024 court ruling, Human Resources will not proceed with the non-exempt reclassifications planned for January 1, 2025.
Murray State University鈥檚 phase one implementation will remain in effect at this time with the salary threshold of $43,888 established effective July 1, 2024 while awaiting further legal developments at the federal level.
Human Resources will continuously monitor for legal developments and work closely with University leadership to ensure the workforce remains compliant with the most recent ruling. Murray State University remains committed to supporting our impacted departments and employees throughout this process.
Overview of FLSA Overtime Impact to Murray State University
In May 2016, the Department of Labor revised the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requiring
organizations to review position classifications to determine overtime eligibility. At
that time, Human Resources completed a review of exempt-level positions and classified
each position according to the FLSA requirements. Based on the final determination
some positions were reclassified and became eligible for overtime effective November
12, 2016.
On November 22, 2016, a U.S. district court judge from Texas issued a preliminary
injunction postponing the effective date of the overtime rule. Despite the court ruling
halting the FLSA changes, Murray State University maintained the course of action
that went into effect November 12, 2016. The University continued to closely monitor
the issue while awaiting the court鈥檚 final decision.
In spring 2017, Murray State University made the decision to set an institutional salary threshold of $30,000 for exempt positions. Per the FLSA requirements, a position must meet both the salary threshold and the duties test to be considered exempt from overtime eligibility. Effective July 1, 2017 positions that met both the institutional threshold and the FLSA duties test were reclassified from non-exempt to exempt.
On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released the final rule increasing the salary threshold for white-collar exemptions to the federal overtime pay requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act to $35,568 effective January 1, 2020.