Some employers tried to get their compliance plans in place by Dec. 1, others implemented them before and others kept their policies in place, said Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There were not any broad patterns, he said. To comply, an employer could increase exempt salaries or move them to nonexempt.
“Employers did both and there are examples of them doing both,” Freedman said. “The ones who increased the salary threshold would have a harder time undoing that change.”
Mark Konkel of Kelley Drye & Warren said many companies will wait for implementation to change their practices.
“Payroll was about to massively increase for companies. Now, that regulation has been blocked,” Konkel said. “But I would not be surprised if some of those companies still feel a social pressure to address overtime. They exist in an economy where there is upward wage pressure.”
Michael Lotito, co-director of Littler Mendelson’s Workplace Policy Institute, a conservative think tank associated with the labor and employment firm, noted some companies, like Wal-Mart, embraced the overtime rule publicly.
“They either did or didn’t,” Lotito said. “The companies made decisions and are living with them. From a practical standpoint, given the fact that we’ve added jobs and wages are up, now we’ve got a labor market where employees are in the driver’s seat. That will create wage and benefit pressure. For some $47,000 is not as high as it once was.”
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