Challenges to DOL’s Revised Exemption Criteria Grow

The court challenges to the new DOL exemption criteria continue to mount. The initial cases were brought in Texas, where two cases – one by the state of Texas and one by a large group of business organizations – were consolidated and assigned to a judge who had already granted a motion by the state of Texas to stay the new rules, at least temporarily.

Initially, suspension of the new DOL rules was limited to Texas; but now 14 other states, mostly in the Southeast and Midwest, have joined Texas in fighting them. In the meantime, the decision in Loper Bright by the US Supreme Court may have a deleterious effect on the arguments of the DOL because of its direction to rely on the language of the enabling legislation instead of relying primarily on the interpretation of the federal agency.

In a separate case, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi) has ruled that the DOL does have the authority to develop the salary basis test criteria for exemption, so this matter is far from settled, and it may ultimately end up before the Supreme Court.