There has been an important update on the new DOL Overtime Rules that were set to go into effect on December 1st. Yesterday a U.S. District Judge issued an injunction against the new rules. This means that the new overtime rules will not go into effect on December 1st. The injunction stops implementation or enforcement of the new rules until further action is taken by the Department of Labor, most likely through appealing the ruling. At this point it is uncertain when, if ever, the new rules will go into effect.
We will keep you apprised of any new developments. Please check our website as well for any updates. Contact us if you have any questions about how this will affect your business.
Many of our clients have asked for information pertaining to the new Department of Labor rules for overtime, especially as they pertain to the not-for-profits. The link below takes you directly to Q&A excepts from the Department of Labor’s webinar for the not-for-profit sector.
https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/webinarfaq_np.htm
Even if a non-profit only engages in non-commercial, charitable operations, the Individual Coverage test may apply to specific employees because of their duties.
Examples:
Q1: How does an employer handle an employee who works part time doing business enterprise and part time charitable enterprise? Is overtime only required when an employee passes 40 hours of enterprise work in a week?
A1: There are two ways that an individual employee may be covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and entitled to its protections: individual coverage and enterprise coverage.
A nonprofit organization is not considered a covered enterprise under the FLSA unless it engages in ordinary commercial activities that result in sales made or business done that meets the $500,000 threshold. If an nonprofit meets this threshold, its employees are covered by the FLSA and entitled to overtime for work performed over 40 hours a week regardless of how the employee spends their time.
Even if a nonprofit organization is not covered on an enterprise basis as described above, it may have individual employees who are covered individually and therefore are entitled to the FLSA’s protections. An employee who engages in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce or in the protection of goods for interstate commerce is covered by the FLSA and is entitled to overtime pay for time worked over 40 hours in a week.
Q2: So we have a Special events position that makes donation requests to sell at our annual basket auction fundraiser. If any of those requests will be made or received from across state lines she would be individually covered even if we don’t earn $500,000 in sales revenue as an agency? She would be covered because of the Individual test?
A: Generally, employees who make phone calls across state lines are individually covered under the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA). For further assistance with coverage principles under the FLSA, please refer to Fact Sheet #14 at:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs14.pdf
or contact your nearest WHD district office at:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/america2.htm
We also found this article, provided by the National Council of Non-Profits to be informative:
As always, please don’t hesitate to call us at 928-778-0079 with your specific questions about these rules and how they apply to your Organization.
Schutte & Hilgendorf is a leading Prescott CPA firm, offering superior client service to individuals, small businesses, non-profit organizations, and homeowners associations.
Our services include accounting, bookkeeping, audit, review, tax return preparation, tax planning, payroll and QuickBooks consulting. We are located in Prescott and serve all of Yavapai County, and Northern Arizona.
