Measure to Scuttle Pennsylvania’s White-Collar Final Rule Advances

An approved increase to Pennsylvania’s white-collar salary threshold could be scuttled under a measure that has been quietly winding its way through, and which may soon clear, the legislature.

The Pennsylvania Senate Labor and Industry Committee on May 26 approved a House resolution (H.C.R.R.R. 1) that would prevent the state’s white-collar overtime salary threshold from rising to $875 in 2022 from the $684 federal amount under a state Department of Labor and Industry regulation (Final-Form Regulation 12-106) that was approved Jan. 31, 2020, by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.

The process by which the white-collar salary-threshold regulation is to be enacted was halted Feb. 5 when the House Labor and Industry Committee introduced a resolution that disapproves of the regulation.

Each legislative branch must decide whether to adopt the resolution that disapproves the rule before the process for enacting the regulation may move forward, according to a Feb. 5 letter to the state labor secretary, Gerard Oleksiak, from the House labor committee.

The disapproval resolution was approved by the House of Representatives on April 21.

The disapproval resolution, now that it has been approved by the Senate Labor and Industry Committee, is to be considered by the state Senate as a whole.

Were the disapproval resolution adopted by both legislative chambers, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) would have to veto the resolution for the white-collar salary-threshold final rule to take effect, a process that requires a 30-day review by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) and publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

However, the governor’s veto also could be overruled by a two-thirds majority vote in both legislative chambers.

Under the rule, the white-collar salary-threshold regulation, Pennsylvania’s 2020 threshold for salaried executives, administrative workers, and professional workers to qualify as exempt from overtime requirements would rise in 2021 to $780 per week, or $40,560 per year. The state threshold would rise in 2022 to $875 per week, or $45,500 per year.