Tag: files

  • DOL Files Appeal in Overtime Legal Challenge

    DOL Files Appeal in Overtime Legal Challenge

    by CUPA-HR | March 12, 2025

    On February 28, the Department of Labor (DOL) filed an appeal in Flint Avenue, LLC v. U.S. Department of Labor, which previously led a district court to strike down the agency’s overtime final rule set forth under the Biden administration. The action is the second pending appeal from DOL with respect to cases involving the Biden administration’s overtime rule and may be acting as a placeholder to provide time for the Trump administration to determine how they want to move forward with the Biden administration’s overtime rule.

    Background

    As a reminder, the Biden administration’s final rule implemented a phase-in approach to increasing the minimum salary threshold under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime regulations. Specifically, the rule increased the minimum salary threshold, effective July 1, 2024, from the previous level of $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to a new level at $844 per week ($43,888 per year). This first increase used the same methodology set by the first Trump administration’s 2019 overtime rule to determine the new salary threshold level. The rule also aimed to increase the threshold a second time effective January 1, 2025; however, the Biden overtime rule was struck down in federal court before the second increase could take effect. This increase would have changed the minimum salary threshold again to $1,128 per week ($58,656 per year). Finally, the rule adopted automatic updates to the minimum salary threshold that would occur every three years.

    Shortly after the Biden overtime rule was published, lawsuits were filed challenging the final rule. These lawsuits resulted in two district court orders to vacate the final rule. On November 15, 2024, a federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Texas ruled to vacate the Biden administration’s FLSA overtime final rule in State of Texas v. U.S. Department of Labor. Similarly, on December 30, 2024, another federal judge in the Northern District Court of Texas ruled to vacate the Biden administration’s overtime rule in Flint Avenue, LLC. Both rulings vacated all components of the rule, meaning both the July and January salary thresholds set under the final rule were no longer in effect and automatic updates to the minimum salary threshold would not take place.

    DOL’s Appeals

    Soon after the federal judge ruled in the State of Texas case, the Biden administration’s DOL filed an appeal. The appeal was filed in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it remained through the presidential transition. On February 24, the Department of Labor under the Trump administration requested an extension to file its opening brief in the State of Texas appeal. The 5th Circuit Court agreed to the extension, allowing for opening briefs to be filed by May 6, 2025.

    Soon after, on February 28, DOL filed its second appeal to the 5th Circuit Court in the Flint Avenue case. Both actions may be intended to give time to newly confirmed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to settle into her new role and determine how the Trump administration will move forward with litigation and the Biden administration’s rulemaking.

    CUPA-HR will continue to keep members apprised of legal updates regarding the overtime regulations.



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  • DOL files fresh appeal of a Texas decision vacating its new overtime rule

    DOL files fresh appeal of a Texas decision vacating its new overtime rule

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    Dive Brief:

    • The U.S. Department of Labor has appealed a Texas federal judge’s 2024 decision blocking its Biden-era final rule which sought to expand overtime pay protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a Feb. 28 court filing.
    • Last December, Judge Sam Cummings of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled against DOL in Flint Avenue, LLC v. U.S. Department of Labor, vacating and setting aside the final rule. Cummings’ decision came just over one month after another Texas judge similarly vacated and set aside the rule in a separate lawsuit filed by the state of Texas and parties including the Plano Chamber of Commerce.
    • The appeal takes Flint Avenue to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court in which DOL filed an appeal of the decision in the State of Texas case last year. DOL’s public affairs staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the DOL, did not respond to a request for comment submitted via its online form.

    Dive Insight:

    The Feb. 28 notice of appeal may come as a surprise to employers who expected the Trump administration to abandon the final rule; attorneys who previously spoke to HR Dive said that the rule was effectively “dead” despite DOL’s State of Texas appeal because of the Trump administration’s conservative policy stance on overtime.

    In fact, the new administration had already filed motions in the 5th Circuit pertinent to overtime rule litigation. On Jan. 22, two days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, DOJ attorneys sent a letter to the 5th Circuit requesting a 30-day extension on the deadline set by the court to file an opening brief in the State of Texas appeal. The court granted the request and the agency’s filing deadline is currently set to March 7.

    The April 2024 final rule proposed a two-step process that would have eventually raised the minimum annual salary threshold for overtime pay eligibility under the FLSA from $35,568 to $58,656 by Jan. 1, 2025. The rule would then have implemented a mechanism for automatically adjusting the threshold every three years using current wage data beginning in July 2027.

    But a series of Texas court decisions froze the rule. The judge in State of Texas held that the rule exceeded DOL’s authority and was unlawful. Likewise, Cummings said in his decision that he found the State of Texas judge’s reasoning “persuasive,” and he adopted the same reasoning in ruling for the plaintiffs.

    There is some intrigue in how the 5th Circuit might rule on the two appealed judgments given that the court signed off on DOL’s overall use of a salary basis test for determining overtime pay eligibility in last year’s Mayfield v. U.S. Department of Labor. The Mayfield plaintiffs alleged that the salary basis test had no basis in the FLSA’s text, but the 5th Circuit disagreed. The court did hold, however, that DOL “cannot enact rules that replace or swallow the meaning” of the FLSA’s text, adding that particular salary threshold may raise legal issues because of their size.

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