On Tuesday, May 21, 2019, ASA, along with the Small Business Legislative Council (SBLC), submitted comments to the proposed rule entitled, “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees (RIN 1235-AA20)” published by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on March 22, 2019.  Our comments addressed the impact of these proposed rules might have on America’s small businesses. 
    
The SBLC is an independent, permanent coalition of national trade and professional associations whose goal is to maximize the advocacy and presence of small business on Federal legislative and regulatory policy issues, and to disseminate information on the impact of public policy on small businesses.  
ASA is a SBLC Member and in their DOL Comments, they stated that “SBLC fully supports the DOL’s goal of ensuring that all Americans receive a fair living wage in exchange for their work; the SBLC still has concerns that certain aspects of the proposed rules could negatively impact small businesses.  However, the SBLC does believe that the proposed rules are a significant improvement over the 2016 Final Rule in this area which was enjoined before going into effect and which would have seriously harmed many small businesses and stymied small business growth.  In particular, the SBLC supports the Department’s return to the 2004 methodology for setting the salary threshold for the white collar exemptions and believes that the proposed threshold is reasonable and consistent with the intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The SBLC further applauds the Department’s decision not to modify the duties tests for the white collar exemptions.  
    
CLICK HERE to review the SBLC comments.  We welcome your input accordingly, and will continue to monitor these comments and their response as they matriculate through DOL’s review process.