NACS Gives Labor Department Its Opinion on Overtime Rule

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, continues to speak up on potential changes to the federal overtime rule.

In a filing this week, the association told the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that salary thresholds should be set on actual salaries of potentially exempt workers who are paid on a salary basis. NACS strongly opposes any adoption of multiple salary levels to avoid confusion, and urged the agency to not automatically update the salary threshold.

An Obama administration rule raised the minimum salary threshold to roughly $47,000 annually to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act's "white collar" overtime exemption. The rule had also raised the overtime eligibility threshold for highly compensated employees to around $134,000, NACS explained.

The change was set to go into effect Dec. 1; however, a federal judge rule in favor of an injunction just days before the implementation date. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in the Eastern District of Texas permanently struck down the rule, as CSNews Online previously reported.

NACS recommended the department not change the salary level threshold more than 5 percent of the prior salary level, and said the re-evaluation period for the rule should be visited not less than every three years.

In addition, the association asked that the agency provide sufficient notice of a revised salary threshold because employers need time to figure out which employees might be impacted and to analyze what that would mean for their business.

As the issue made its way through the courts, the labor department published a Request for Information on July 26, opening the door for the public to provide information "that will aid the department in formulating a proposal to revise these regulations which define and delimit exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and overtime requirements for certain employees," as CSNews Online previously reported.

To read NACS comments to the DOL, click here.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) also submitted comments to the DOL, telling the department that the Obama administration set the salary threshold too high. Any new rule under the Trump administration should be lower and account for regional and industry differences, it added.

"NRF strongly opposed the final rule's attempt to raise employee wages by executive fiat and its significant increase in the regulatory burdens on employers," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "The drastic increase to the standard salary level imposed by the final rule ignored economic reality and would have resulted in major negative consequences for employees, employers and the economy as a whole."

NRF also noted that last year's regulations would have automatically increased the salary level every three years. However, Shay said any new regulations should not include an automatic update. He also said that a worker's full compensation — including bonuses, commissions, incentive pay and other income — should be considered in determining whether the level is met.