Will Congress Exempt Itself from the New Overtime Rule?

Employment Law

Congress will not be subject to the higher salary level test under the new overtime rule unless it passes a resolution saying it will comply with the regulations—an uncertainty as Congress never adopted the higher salary levels in 2004 when the rules were last updated.  Under the Congressional Accountability Act, Congress is subject to the FLSA's overtime requirements, but only if the Office of Compliance in Congress conducts its own rulemaking, and Congress adopts that final rule via a resolution.  Currently, Congress operates under the FLSA regulations it adopted in 1996, so the current salary level test that applies to congressional staff is no more than $250 per week.  The latest available data show the median annual pay of several congressional positions would fall under the new threshold for overtime pay, including staff assistants ($35,501), legislative correspondents ($38,052), schedulers ($48,199), legislative assistants ($48,622) and field representatives ($49,500).  Separately, a new report estimates the new overtime rule will drive up the cost of running future congressional election campaigns because campaign staff are covered by the new DOL rule.  For example, if Senate and House campaigns had to abide by the new rule this year instead of in 2018, junior staffers would earn an average of more than $26,000 in overtime pay.