Your Organization is Probably Covered by the Dec. 1st FLSA Deadline in Business and at Work

Earlier this year, a nonprofit organization near and dear to my heart forwarded me a message from their national Treasurer listserv: if our nonprofit organization had less than a $500,000 annual budget, then there was a chance that we wouldn’t be bound by the December 1, 2016 deadline raising the minimum salary threshold for exempt employees to $47,776 a year or $913 a week. That wasn’t my understanding. Last week, I sat through a webinar sponsored by the same nonprofit’s national organization, which confirmed my understanding that we were covered by the December 1st deadline.

As my colleague Joanmarie Dowling and I have clarified in our series of workshops and webinars (as well as the workshops and webinars of many other employer-side lawyers and senior HR practitioners – including a panel I moderated last month that included our local U.S. DOL representatives and Joanmarie) – because of the interstate commerce qualifier in the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations which include email and websites, pretty much every employer is included in the December 1, 2016 deadline. Below is the slide from our workshops emphasizing that that inclusion:

  • Enterprise: Organizations are covered if they:
    • Have at least two (2) employees; and
    • Either
      • have an annual dollar volume of sales or business done of at least $500,000; or
      • Are a hospital, business providing medical or nursing care for residents, school/preschool, or government agency
  • Individual: Even if the organization is not covered as an enterprise, individuals may be covered if their work regularly involves them in interstate commerce. (E.g., websites, purchasing supplies online, email server hosting, etc. – all activities which cross state lines).

Given those facts, your organization is probably covered by the December 1st FLSA deadline. You still have time to take the steps to ensure compliance, in business and at work.

 

Payroll File Containing Employee Timesheet Records