I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4505 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to establish a minimum 

salary threshold for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional 

employees exempt from Federal overtime compensation requirements, 

and automatically update such threshold every 3 years. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 30, 2017 

Mr. TAKANO (for himself, Mr. BEYER, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. 

CUMMINGS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. DELANEY, Ms. 

DELAURO, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GUTIE ́RREZ, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. LEE, Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PASCRELL, 

Mr. POCAN, Mr. POLIS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. TONKO, 

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California, Mrs. 

WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, 

Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. SABLAN, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. 

NORCROSS, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. HANABUSA, 

Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, and Ms. ADAMS) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 

Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to establish 

a minimum salary threshold for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees exempt from 

Federal overtime compensation requirements, and automatically update such threshold every 3 years. 


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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoring Overtime 

5 Pay Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 

9 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) established overtime compensa10 tion requirements for certain employees when they 

11 work more than 40 hours in a given workweek. 

12 (2) Under section 13(a)(1) of such Act, Con13 gress delegated to the Secretary of Labor the au14 thority to define and delimit the terms relating to 

15 the exemption for bona fide executive, administra16 tive, and professional employees (commonly known 

17 as the ‘‘white collar exemption’’). 

18 (3) For more than 75 years, the Secretary of 

19 Labor has exercised its delegated authority to issue 

20 regulations that define and delimit the terms relat21 ing to the white collar exemption by applying a du22 ties test and applying a minimum compensation level 

23 (or salary threshold). 

24 (4) The Secretary of Labor began utilizing a 

25 salary threshold in the initial regulations defining 


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1 and delimiting the terms relating to the white collar 

2 exemption, which were first issued in 1938. 

3 (5) Congress has long approved the use of a 

4 salary threshold by the Secretary of Labor, as dem5 onstrated by the fact that Congress has amended the 

6 Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 at least 10 times 

7 since 1938 and has not precluded the Secretary 

8 from using a salary threshold. 

9 (6) The salary threshold became woefully out of 

10 date and ineffective as a result of not being suffi11 ciently updated to keep pace with a changing econ12 omy, as evidenced by the fact that more than 60 

13 percent of all full-time salaried workers earned less 

14 than the salary threshold in 1975 and less than 7 

15 percent of these workers earned less than the salary 

16 threshold in 2016. 

17 (7) The salary threshold of $455 per week, or 

18 $23,660 per year, that was in effect on May 22, 

19 2016, was below the poverty line for a family of 4. 

20 (8) The Secretary of Labor updated the salary 

21 threshold on May 23, 2016, through a final rule en22 titled ‘‘Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for 

23 Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside 

24 Sales and Computer Employees’’ (81 Fed. Reg. 

25 32391) by increasing the salary threshold to the 


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1 40th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried em2 ployees in the lowest-wage Census Region, resulting 

3 in a salary threshold of $913 per week or $47,476 

4 per year. 

5 (9) The final rule would benefit more than 

6 13,000,000 employees by providing overtime com7 pensation protections to 4,200,000 new employees 

8 and strengthening overtime compensation protec9 tions for 8,900,000 additional employees. 

10 (10) The Secretary of Labor went through a 

11 thorough process in crafting the final rule, seeking 

12 public input and conducting extensive economic anal13 ysis, including— 

14 (A) spending more than a year meeting 

15 with more than 200 interested parties to obtain 

16 input before issuing the proposed rule in 2015; 

17 (B) considering more than 270,000 com18 ments received during the 60-day public com19 ment period on the proposed rule; and 

20 (C) making significant changes in response 

21 to public input before issuing the final rule. 

22 (11) The public comments submitted to the 

23 Secretary of Labor regarding the proposed rule were 

24 overwhelmingly positive and supportive of the rule. 


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1 (12) The increase in the salary threshold, in2 cluded in the final rule, to the 40th percentile of 

3 earnings of full-time salaried employees in the low4 est-wage Census Region, resulting in a threshold of 

5 $913 per week or $47,476 per year, was a strong 

6 yet measured increase by almost any measure, in7 cluding as compared to— 

8 (A) the higher salary threshold of $970 per 

9 week or $50,440 per year, initially put forward 

10 by the Secretary of Labor in the proposed rule; 

11 (B) the salary threshold of $984 per week 

12 or $51,168 per year, which would have fully ac13 counted for the erosion to the value of the sal14 ary threshold since 1975 due to inflation; 

15 (C) the salary threshold of $1,122 per 

16 week or $58,344 per year, which would have 

17 covered the same share of all salaried workers 

18 as were covered in 1975 after adjusting for the 

19 different educational composition of the work20 force today; and 

21 (D) the salary threshold of $1,327 per 

22 week or $69,004 per year, which would have 

23 covered the same percentage of all salaried 

24 workers as were covered in 1975 without adVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 02, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4505.IH H4505

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1 justing for the different educational composition 

2 of the workforce today. 

3 (13) The United States District Court for the 

4 Eastern District of Texas erroneously called the au5 thority of the Secretary of Labor under the Fair 

6 Labor Standards Act of 1938 into question when it 

7 issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the De8 partment of Labor from enforcing the final overtime 

9 rule. 

10 (14) The United States District Court for the 

11 Eastern District of Texas issued a final decision in12 validating the rule, threatening overtime protections 

13 for millions of workers. 

14 SEC. 3. MINIMUM SALARY THRESHOLD FOR BONA FIDE EX15 ECUTIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND PROFES16 SIONAL EMPLOYEES EXEMPT FROM FEDERAL 

17 OVERTIME COMPENSATION REQUIREMENTS. 

18 (a) MINIMUM SALARY THRESHOLD FOR BONA FIDE

19 EXECUTIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND PROFESSIONAL EM20 PLOYEES.—Section 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act 

21 of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213) is amended— 

22 (1) in subsection (a)(1)— 

23 (A) by inserting ‘‘subsection (k) and’’ after 

24 ‘‘subject to’’; and 


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1 (B) by inserting ‘‘(except as provided 

2 under subsection (k)(3)(C))’’ after ‘‘Administra3 tive Procedure Act’’; and 

4 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(k) MINIMUM SALARY THRESHOLD.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the effective 

7 date of the Restoring Overtime Pay Act of 2017, the 

8 Secretary shall require that an employee described in 

9 subsection (a)(1), as a requirement for exemption 

10 under such subsection, be compensated on a salary 

11 basis, or equivalent fee basis, within the meaning of 

12 such terms in subpart G of part 541 of title 29, 

13 Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regu14 lation), at a rate per week that is not less than the 

15 salary threshold under paragraph (2). 

16 ‘‘(2) SALARY THRESHOLD.— 

17 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The salary threshold 

18 shall be an amount that, subject to subpara19 graph (B), is equal to the 40th percentile of 

20 earnings of full-time salaried workers in the 

21 lowest-wage Census Region as determined by 

22 the Bureau of Labor Statistics in accordance 

23 with subparagraph (C) and as updated under 

24 paragraph (3). 


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1 ‘‘(B) INCREASED THRESHOLD.—The Sec2 retary may establish, through notice and com3 ment rulemaking under section 553 of title 5, 

4 United States Code, a salary threshold that is 

5 an amount based on a rate that is greater than 

6 the rate described in subparagraph (A) as de7 termined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 

8 accordance with subparagraph (C) and as up9 dated under paragraph (3). 

10 ‘‘(C) AMOUNT DETERMINATIONS.—The 

11 amount of the salary threshold determined 

12 under subparagraph (A) or (B) shall be based 

13 on data from the second quarter of the year 

14 preceding the effective date of such amount. 

15 ‘‘(3) AUTOMATIC UPDATES.— 

16 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

17 update the amount of the salary threshold 

18 under paragraph (2) every 3 years so that such 

19 amount is based on data from the second quar20 ter of the year preceding the effective date of 

21 the update. 

22 ‘‘(B) PUBLICATION OF NOTICE.—Not later 

23 than 60 days before the effective date of any 

24 update under subparagraph (A), the Secretary 

25 shall publish, in the Federal Register and on 


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1 the internet website of the Department of 

2 Labor, a notice announcing the update. 

3 ‘‘(C) NONAPPLICABILITY OF RULEMAKING

4 REQUIREMENTS.—Any update described in this 

5 paragraph shall not be subject to the require6 ments for notice and comment rulemaking 

7 under section 553 of title 5, United States 

8 Code. 

9 ‘‘(4) DUTIES TEST.—The Secretary shall, in 

10 addition to the requirement under paragraph (1), 

11 continue to require employees to satisfy a duties 

12 test, as prescribed by the Secretary, in defining and 

13 delimiting the terms described in subsection (a)(1).’’. 

14 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act, and the amend15 ments made by this Act, shall take effect on the date that 

16 is 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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