The Wage and Hour Division published an amendment restoring the 2019 overtime regulations for executive, administrative, and professional employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) plans to cancel the EEO-1 and EEO-4 workforce data reports. The EEOC issued a decision concluding that a federal agency was liable for religious discrimination for failing to accommodate employees who objected to getting vaccinated for COVID-19. To address case backlogs, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is transferring cases to different regions.

DOL Issues Technical Amendment to FLSA Overtime Regulations

The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor published a technical amendment to restore the regulations concerning the executive, administrative, and professional employees' exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The amendment removes from the Code of Federal Regulations the 2024 regulation and republishes the rule that was issued in 2019. The restored regulations required that employees exempt from overtime—executive, administrative, and professional—must be paid a salary of $684 per week. Additionally, the annual compensation threshold for highly compensated employees will be $107,432 per year. Wage and Hour Administrator Andrew Rogers stated, "It is critical that each element of the section 13(a)(1) exemptions – duties, salary basis, and salary level requirements – be clearly framed for the benefit of both employees and employers." The amendment became effective on May 15, 2026.

In Congress, the Restoring Overtime Pay Act (S. 4551, H.R. 8868) has been introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Mark Takano (D-CA). The bill would increase the overtime threshold over the next four years until it reached $89,440 in 2030. According to Senator Sanders, "We should be making it easier, not harder, for Americans who work more than 40 hours a week to get the time-and-a-half pay that they have earned and deserve." There are 25 cosponsors in the Senate and 22 in the House of Representatives.

The overtime pay threshold would increase to $45,000 in 2026, $55,000 in 2027, $65,000 in 2028, $75,000 in 2029, and to the 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally, updated annually, which is currently $89,440. The threshold would be adjusted annually based on the 55th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers nationally from the second quarter of the preceding calendar year as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The bills have been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

EEOC Plans to Cancel EEO-1 Data Collection

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a request with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to rescind the EEO-1 and EEO-4 reporting requirements under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The EEO-1 is an annual workforce data report that private sector employers with at least 100 employees had to complete. State and local governments with at least 100 employees need to complete the EEO-4 report every other year providing demographic workforce information. If OIRA approves the EEOC request, the proposal will be published in the Federal Register for public comment.

EEOC Decision Finds Federal Agency Liable for Religious Discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued an appellate decision concluding that the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Education violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by denying requests for religious accommodations to be exempt from the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by President Biden. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas stated that this decision "is a step toward justice for federal employees who suffered under the pandemic-era policies of the Biden Administration."

Three employees who worked at the Sherman Indian School in California filed this appeal following the denial of their request for an exemption from the COVID vaccine mandate due to their religious practice of refraining from using substances developed with human fetal cells obtained through abortion. The agency claimed that granting the exemptions would impose an undue hardship on the agency. The EEOC held that testing and masking were alternative reasonable accommodations that would not have imposed an undue hardship on the agency. Additionally, the decision stated that the agency "acted discriminatorily when it subjected complainants to an unduly adversarial accommodation process." As a result of a nationwide injunction against the vaccine mandate imposed by a district court, the complainants were allowed to continue working at the school, provided they masked and regularly tested.

In finding that the agency did not meet its Title VII religious accommodation requirements, the decision held that the agency purchased tests using funds provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and there is no indication that these purchases imposed a substantial burden on the agency or its ability to deliver educational services. The decision stated that there was "evidence that reasonably accommodating Complainants' religious practices with testing and masking would not have imposed an undue financial hardship on the Agency."

The decision also criticized the agency over the adversarial process with which it considered the religious accommodation requests. The decision accused the agency of a discriminatory process that subjected the claimants to "invasive gotcha-style questioning" that it believed was a discriminatory attempt to "expose supposed hypocrisy and convince claimants to recant their objections."

NLRB Undertakes Case Transfer

In order to address a backlog of unfair labor practice cases, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered a transfer of approximately 3,500 cases to different NLRB regions. The goal is to rebalance the case load among the regions. Crystal Carey, NLRB general counsel stated, "Following a comprehensive review of pending Unfair Labor Practice cases throughout the Agency, it became evident that the inability to timely adjudicate aging cases necessitated their redistribution across various regions. The Agency cannot effectively fulfill its mission if cases grow stale in Regional Offices lacking the necessary capacity for timely processing."

Neil Reichenberg is the former executive director of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources. He is an attorney, a frequent writer and speaker on public policy and human resource issues, and an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University. For questions or additional information, contact Reichenberg at neilreichenberg@yahoo.com.