Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime provisions — a test that employers are routinely required to apply.266 In contrast, several commenters disagreed with the threshold and the requirement for written justification. A few commenters thought the threshold was too low to capture employees in certain critical infrastructure sectors (e.g., public safety, waste collection) and that it did not sufficiently account for the variance in economic need across different geographic areas and family structures. Some smaller communities argued that the threshold was difficult to calculate and apply. Other commenters proposed revisions for how the threshold is calculated. For instance, a few commenters asked Treasury to consider using alternative earnings measures such as median income. Similarly, another commenter asked Treasury to consider the incomes of workers with different levels of seniority in developing any income thresholds for permitting or reporting on premium pay. Finally, there was also some uncertainty as to the threshold and the requirement for written justification. Some commenters interpreted the threshold as a hard cap on who was eligible for premium pay, which is not the case. Relatedly, some commenters also requested further guidance on what recipients should include in the written justification submitted to the Secretary. Treasury Response: The final rule makes some modifications to the determination of when premium pay "responds to" eligible workers performing essential work during the public health emergency. Under the interim final rule, premium pay was responsive if either the workers' pay was below a wage threshold or, if the pay was above a wage threshold, the 266 See generally 29 U.S.C. 207(a); U.S. Department of Labor, Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA (Fact Sheet No. 23), https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/23-flsa-overtime-pay 228