18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Notable

Keep an overtime threshold that does not punish lower-cost regions

Done

Printed page 592 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies

“DOL should maintain an overtime threshold that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States). The Trump-era threshold is high enough to capture most line workers in lower-cost regions.”

What has happened

May 15, 2026 Done
The Wage and Hour Division removed the vacated 2024 overtime rule from the Code of Federal Regulations and republished at 29 CFR part 541 the salary-threshold text as it stood before that rule took effect — the 2019 Trump-era threshold of $684 a week ($35,568 a year). The threshold the Quote asks the Department to maintain is the threshold now in force.
- DOL/WHD final rule: Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees; Implementation of Federal Court Judgments (removes the vacated 2024 rule and republishes the prior regulatory text)
  Primary Executive branch May 15, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

The Quote is a “maintain” ask: keep a threshold that does not sweep in line workers in lower-cost regions, and it names the Trump-era threshold as the acceptable level. §3b: “a ‘preserve’ or ‘continue’ ask is done while the thing continues.” The 2019 threshold is what 29 CFR 541.600 now says.
The vacatur that made this possible (E.D. Tex., November 2024) is outside the window; the in-window action is the Department’s own technical amendment, which is why the event is dated 2026-05-15 rather than backfilled.
No new rulemaking to raise the threshold appears on the Wage and Hour Division’s active agenda (reginfo.gov, agencyCd 1200, pubId 202510), so nothing is pending that would undo it.

Action: other
Object: FLSA overtime salary threshold
ID: 1629