The recent and long-awaited changes the Department of Labor (DOL) announced to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime regulations are the most significant in over a decade and will have a heavy impact on both employees and employers.

At the recently held Eclipse benefits and HR conference, labor and employment attorneys alongside PlanSource HR, operations, and general counsel experts worked out some strategies aimed at helping employers prepare for the new rules that go into effect on December 1.

Understand how your employees will be affected

Currently, employers are required to pay all non-exempt employees overtime pay — at least time and a half for every hour exceeding 40 work hours in a week. One way to remember the difference between exempt and non-exempt is to remember that exempt employees are also exempt from sympathy — their boss can work them as hard as they want and they don't get paid any more.

The final rule changes announced by the DOL in May will result in 4.2 million additional workers becoming exempt. The pay threshold at which white collar workers are exempt from overtime pay was doubled to $47,476 from its original $23,660. This threshold has not been updated in years, but the new rules require the threshold to automatically adjust every three years starting in 2020.