I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4773 
To require the Secretary of Labor to nullify the proposed rule regarding 
defining and delimiting the exemptions for executive, administrative, pro-
fessional, outside sales, and computer employees, to require the Secretary 
of Labor to conduct a full and complete economic analysis with improved 
economic data on small businesses, nonprofit employers, Medicare or 
Medicaid dependent health care providers, and small governmental juris-
dictions, and all other employers, and minimize the impact on such 
employers, before promulgating any substantially similar rule, and to 
provide a rule of construction regarding the salary threshold exemption 
under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 17, 2016 
Mr. WALBERG (for himself and Mr. KLINE) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Labor to nullify the proposed 
rule regarding defining and delimiting the exemptions 
for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, 
and computer employees, to require the Secretary of 
Labor to conduct a full and complete economic analysis 
with improved economic data on small businesses, non-
profit employers, Medicare or Medicaid dependent health 
care providers, and small governmental jurisdictions, and 
all other employers, and minimize the impact on such 
employers, before promulgating any substantially similar 
rule, and to provide a rule of construction regarding 
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the salary threshold exemption under the Fair Labor 
Standards Act of 1938, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Workplace 
Advancement and Opportunity Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The proposed rule of the Department of 
Labor entitled ‘‘Defining and Delimiting the Exemp-
tions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, 
Outside Sales and Computer Employees’’ (80 Fed. 
Reg. 38516 (July 6, 2015)) provides a minimum sal-
ary requirement that would be— 
(A) a 113-percent increase during the first 
year after the final rule takes effect from the 
salary threshold in effect on February 29, 
2016; and 
(B) an increase that would set the Federal 
minimum salary threshold 20-percent higher 
than the minimum salary threshold under any 
State law effective on the date of enactment of 
this Act. 
(2) The Secretary significantly underestimated 
the cost of compliance with the July 6, 2015, pro-
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posed rule. Public comments calculate such rule will 
impose financial and nonfinancial costs substantially 
higher than those estimated by the Department. 
(3) According to the Office of Advocacy of the 
Small Business Administration, the initial regulatory 
flexibility analysis of the July 6, 2015, proposed rule 
required under section 603 of title 5, United States 
Code, failed to adequately identify the number of 
small entities affected by such rule and failed to ad-
dress how such rule would affect regions with lower 
costs of living and differences in certain industries. 
On September 4, 2015, the Office of Advocacy of 
the Small Business Administration submitted com-
ments to the Secretary regarding such rule, includ-
ing recommendations to— 
(A) reanalyze ‘‘the economic impact of this 
rule on small businesses’’, to ‘‘provide a more 
accurate estimate of the small entities impacted 
by this proposal’’, and to ‘‘include an analysis 
of industry sub-sectors, regional differences, 
and revenue sizes’’; 
(B) reanalyze ‘‘the number of small non- 
profit organizations and small governmental ju-
risdictions . . . that are affected by this rule 
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and the economic impact of this rule on these 
entities’’; and 
(C) provide greater transparency with re-
spect to ‘‘compliance cost data’’ and to ‘‘utilize 
data provided in the comment process to accu-
rately estimate the human resources and finan-
cial management costs of this regulation’’. 
(4) The Secretary did not consider the potential 
impact of the July 6, 2015, proposed rule on work-
place flexibility. Public comments address concerns 
that employees who are reclassified from exempt to 
nonexempt employees may no longer be able to par-
ticipate in workplace flexibility arrangements and 
programs. 
(5) The Secretary did not analyze the potential 
impact of the July 6, 2015, proposed rule on compa-
nies that operate in multiple States with different 
costs of living and different salary scales, and the 
costs and unique complications for these employers 
associated with reclassifying thousands of employees 
in multiple States. 
(6) The July 6, 2015, proposed rule automati-
cally updates the salary threshold on an annual basis 
for purposes of defining employees subject to the ex-
emption under section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor 
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Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(1)) for all 
subsequent years, contrary to the requirement under 
such section that the definitions applicable for the 
exemption shall be ‘‘defined and delimited from time 
to time by regulations of the Secretary’’. The Sec-
retary does not have the authority to increase the 
salary threshold on an annual or other basis without 
conducting notice and comment rulemaking with re-
spect to each change in accordance with section 553 
of title 5, United States Code. 
(7) Although not proposed in the July 6, 2015, 
proposed rule, the Secretary indicated that changes 
to the duties tests may be included in the final rule, 
without providing for notice and comment regarding 
the specific proposed revisions. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 
means the Department of Labor. 
(2) JULY 6, 2015, PROPOSED RULE.—The term 
‘‘July 6, 2015, proposed rule’’ means the proposed 
rule of the Department of Labor entitled ‘‘Defining 
and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Ad-
ministrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Com-
puter Employees’’ (80 Fed. Reg. 38516 (July 6, 
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2015)) or the final rule with respect to such pro-
posed rule. 
(3) MEDICARE
OR
MEDICAID
DEPENDENT 
HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘Medicare or 
Medicaid dependent health care provider’’ means an 
employer who derives more than 50 percent of its 
revenue from payments under the Medicare program 
under title XVIII of the Social Security Act, a State 
plan under the Medicaid program under title XIX of 
such Act, or both. 
(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Labor. 
(5) SMALL BUSINESS; SMALL ENTITY; SMALL 
GOVERNMENT
JURISDICTION; 
SMALL
ORGANIZA-
TION.—The terms ‘‘small business’’, ‘‘small entity’’, 
‘‘small government jurisdiction’’, and ‘‘small organi-
zation’’ have the meanings given such terms in sec-
tion 601 of title 5, United States Code. 
(6) SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR RULE.—The term 
‘‘substantially similar rule’’ means any rule or pro-
posed rule that is a reissuance of the July 6, 2015, 
proposed rule in substantially the same form as such 
rule, or is the issuance of a new rule or proposed 
rule that is substantially the same as the July 6, 
2015, rule, including any rule that implements the 
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provisions of section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(1)). 
SEC. 4. CONDITIONS PRECEDENT FOR SUBSTANTIALLY 
SIMILAR RULES. 
(a) ENFORCEMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date of en-
actment of this Act, the July 6, 2015, proposed rule 
shall cease to have any force or effect. 
(2) FINAL RULE.—In the case that the July 6, 
2015, proposed rule is a final rule on the date of en-
actment of this Act— 
(A) the Secretary shall not enforce the 
final rule based on conduct occurring before 
such date of enactment; 
(B) an employee shall not have any right 
of action against an employer for the employ-
er’s failure to comply with the final rule at any 
time prior to such date of enactment; 
(C) any regulations that were amended by 
such final rule shall be restored and revived as 
if the final rule had never taken effect; and 
(D) nothing in this Act shall be construed 
to create a right of action for an employer 
against an employee for the recoupment of any 
payments made to the employee prior to the 
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date of enactment of this Act that were in com-
pliance with such final rule. 
(b) CONDITIONS
FOR
SUBSTANTIALLY
SIMILAR 
RULES.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may promul-
gate any substantially similar rule, subject to para-
graph (3), only if the Secretary has completed each 
action required under paragraph (2). 
(2) REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBSTANTIALLY SIMI-
LAR RULES.—The actions required under this para-
graph are the following: 
(A) The Secretary shall conduct an anal-
ysis of the impact of the substantially similar 
rule, including an initial regulatory flexibility 
analysis under section 603 of title 5, United 
States Code, and assessments under clauses (i) 
through (iii) of section 6(a)(3)(C) of Executive 
Order 12866 (5 U.S.C. 601 note, relating to 
regulatory planning and review) to be provided 
to the Administrator of the Office of Informa-
tion and Regulatory Affairs in accordance with 
such section, and that— 
(i) accurately identifies the number of 
affected small entities by using specific 
data points from the most recent publica-
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tion of the Statistics of U.S. Businesses by 
the Bureau of the Census; 
(ii) addresses regional, State, county 
(if applicable), metropolitan, and non-
metropolitan salary and cost-of-living dif-
ferences; 
(iii) provides an analysis of any sub-
stantially similar rule, which shall include 
the percentile of full-time salaried workers 
affected, and such analysis shall be 
disaggregated by— 
(I) State; 
(II) industry subsector; 
(III) small organizations; 
(IV) small government jurisdic-
tions, including further disaggregation 
by school district; 
(V) nonprofit organizations; 
(VI) Medicare or Medicaid de-
pendent health care providers; and 
(VII) small businesses; 
(iv) provides an analysis of manage-
ment and human resource costs for all em-
ployers, including costs associated with 
changing human resource systems, reclas-
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