Many will recall that modification to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division overtime rules were to take effect on December 1, 2016.  In large part, these rules would have changed the salary basis on which overtime is determined, raising it from an equivalent of $23,660 per year to a new level equivalent of $47,476 per year, and tying it to a regular inflationary increase. 

On the eve of its effective date, the U.S. District Court of Eastern District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction preventing the DOL from implementing and enforcing the rules. Then, on December 1, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the DOL, filed for an appeal of the District Court’s preliminary injunction ruling, and subsequently filed a request for expedited briefing and oral arguments in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on the following day.  This was followed by a reply brief filed by the DOJ with the Court on June 30, 2017.  Then, just a few days ago, on August 31, 2017, that same District Court has thrown out the overtime rules altogether.  It is possible that an appeal could be filed, but for the moment, the overtime rules will not take effect.

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