On December 16, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)
published its first significant revision since 1968 to its
interpretation of the calculation of the "regular rate"
under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).1 The regulations address whether
certain fringe benefits must be included in calculating an
employee's regular rate for overtime purposes. With the
publication of this final rule, the DOL seeks to not only provide
clarity as to what is excluded from the regular rate, but also
update regulations to better reflect the 21st-century
workplace.
The DOL published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
underlying the new regular rate rule on March 29, 2019. Comments to
the proposed rule were submitted by small business owners,
individual workers, unions, and professional associations. In
response to those comments, the DOL made some modifications to the
proposed rule before adopting it.
