DOL Rescinds 2024 Overtime Rule, Resets Salary Threshold to $684

The Situation

If you spent 2024 recalculating salaries for your office manager or dispatcher, you can put that spreadsheet away. On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor formally rescinded its 2024 overtime rule. The change restores the federal exempt-salary threshold to $684 a week — the same number in place since 2019.

The Facts

The 2024 rule would have raised the exempt-salary floor in two steps: to $844 a week in July 2024, then to $1,128 a week — $58,656 a year — on January 1, 2025, with automatic increases every three years after that. A federal court in the Eastern District of Texas vacated the whole rule nationwide on November 15, 2024, ruling that DOL had put salary ahead of job duties in defining who counts as exempt. The Fifth Circuit dismissed DOL's appeal in May 2026 after the agency stopped defending the rule in court.

For an employee to be exempt from overtime under the executive, administrative, or professional test, three things still have to be true: they're paid on salary, that salary clears the federal threshold, and their actual job duties meet DOL's duties test. With the 2024 rule gone, that salary floor is $684 a week again — not the $1,128 the Biden-era rule would have required by last year.

Business Impact

Picture an operations manager earning $52,000 a year on salary. Under the 2024 rule, she would have needed a raise to $58,656 by January 2025, or you would have had to reclassify her as hourly and track every minute of overtime. Under the reset, if she clears the duties test, $52,000 keeps her exempt.

What this means for your business: 1. Re-check your exempt-employee salary list against the $684/week floor, not the higher Biden-era numbers. 2. If you operate in California, New York, Washington, Colorado, Alaska, or Maine, your state's higher threshold still controls — this reset is federal only. 3. DOL has not proposed a new rule yet, but it could. Keep your duties-test paperwork current, not just the salary number.

Key Takeaways

• The federal exempt-salary threshold is back to $684 a week — the same number since 2019.
• The Biden-era rule's $58,656 annual threshold never took effect and is no longer coming.
• State thresholds in CA, NY, WA, CO, AK, and ME are unaffected and still control in those states.
• DOL could propose a new rule later, so keep your duties-test documentation current, not just your salary numbers.

Action Steps

1. 1.Pull the salary list for every exempt employee — dispatcher, office manager, controller, ops lead — and confirm each is at $684/week or higher.
2. 2.If you operate in CA, NY, WA, CO, AK, or ME, ask your payroll provider for the current state threshold in writing.
3. 3.For any employee close to the line, write a one-page duties-test memo and file it.
4. 4.This week, email your payroll provider to confirm which threshold — federal or state — applies to each of your offices.

Competitive Advantage

A dealer who documents the duties test now — not just the salary figure — is the one who survives a wage-and-hour audit without a scramble. That one-page memo per exempt employee costs an afternoon today and saves a lawyer's invoice later.