The Proposed Rule was published on Friday, March 29, 20 and is available here. The proposed rule is designed to help employers who provide more perks to employees instead of raises in amounts of salaries. The existing “regular rate” rules, which have not been updated in 50 years discourage the practice:
“Under current rules, employers are discouraged from offering more perks to their employees, as those perks may be vaguely defined in calculating an employees’ regular rate of pay,” the department said in the announcement. “The proposed rule focuses primarily on clarifying whether certain kinds of perks, benefits, or other miscellaneous items must be included in the regular rate. Because these regulations have not been updated in decades, the proposal would better define the regular rate for today’s workplace practices.”
The new rule clarifies what employers may exclude from the employee’s regular rate of pay when calculating the overtime rate. Go here to see the list of exclusions easily laid out for you.