5 Top Labor And Employment Laws & Regs From 2019
Federal labor agencies spent the bulk of 2019 polishing a slew of regulations that have been at the top of the Trump administration's to-do list, including a long-awaited rule revamping how white collar workers are paid overtime, while employee-friendly states like California spent the year locking in a multitude of key worker protections.
Here, experts discuss five laws and regulations that made waves over the past year.
DOL Finalizes New Overtime Rule
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Jason Reisman, co-chair of Blank Rome LLP's labor and employment practice, said that since the salary threshold hadn't been hiked in a decade and a half, the time had come for it to be raised, leaving only the details up in the air.
"I think that the department did its diligence and came out with a new threshold … which is certainly a vast improvement on what it was," Reisman said.
But since the Obama administration's version of the rule and its approximately $47,000 salary threshold, which worker advocates unsuccessfully urged the DOL to maintain, came so close to becoming effective, Reisman said that many employers are well-prepared this time around to handle the new mandate.
He noted that some businesses had already given certain workers raises ahead of the 2016 rule's demise to put their salaries above the threshold and most of them had left those wage hikes in place after the rule was scrapped.
"I think most employers that are conscientious — they were preparing in 2016 to be in compliance," Reisman said. "I also think that from the employers' standpoint ... the employers are a lot more confident that this is going to [remain] in place."
"5 Top Labor And Employment Laws & Regs From 2019," by Vin Gurrieri was published in Law360 on December 20, 2019.