PART II HCE Exemption changes

… First, Some Quick “Housekeeping”

This article is Part II of a three-part series covering employer obligations for the payment of overtime wages and the requirements to treat certain salary employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements. Stay tuned for III, and if you missed Part I, you can find it here: Part I 

Part I: Covering changes to the minimum salary threshold required for Executive, Administrative, and Professional exemptions;

Part II: This article covers the changes to the minimum salary threshold required for the Highly Compensated Employee (“HCE”) exemption, as defined in Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulations, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”); and

Part III: Covering general information about the payment of overtime wages, determining an employee’s “regular” rate of pay for calculating overtime, and timekeeping requirements for non-exempt employees.

Blah, Blah, Background or Whatever, Blah Blah… (it’s all basically in part I)

Requirements for the HCE Exemption

The Department of Labor regulations contain a special rule for “highly compensated” employees who are paid an annual compensation above a minimum amount (per the chart below) on a salary or fee basis whose primary duty includes performing office or non-manual work and who customarily and regularly performs at least one of the exempt duties or responsibilities of an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee.