Retail Business Overtime Exemption Expanded Under New Rule (1)

Certain businesses with a retail component will have an easier time exempting commission-earning employees from overtime pay under a new, previously unannounced Labor Department regulation that takes effect immediately.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division issued a final rule Monday to eliminate a list of 89 establishments that lack a retail concept, a designation that previously made them ineligible for the long-established retail and service industry exemption from time-and-a-half overtime pay requirements.

Although some courts have ruled that the list doesn’t preclude a company from applying the overtime exclusion, management attorneys say the new rule offers more employers legal cover ...