UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Overtime Final Rule and Higher Education

Higher Education Sector: Higher education is a
complex and important sector in our economy and
civil society. It includes a large variety of institutions:
public and private schools; community colleges, fouryear colleges, and large research institutions; and small
campuses of only a few hundred students and faculty
and large campuses of thousands of people.
Overtime Final Rule: The Department of Labors
final overtime rule updates the salary level required
for the executive, administrative, and professional
(white collar) exemption to ensure that the Fair Labor
Standards Acts (FLSA) intended overtime protections
are fully implemented, and it provides greater clarity for
workers and employers, including for higher education
institutions. The final rule will also lead to better
work-life balance for many workers, and it can benefit
employers by increasing productivity and reducing
turnover.
The final rule updates the salary threshold under which
most white collar workers are entitled to overtime
compensation to equal the 40th percentile of weekly
earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest
wage Census region, currently the South. The final
rule will raise the salary threshold from $455 a week
($23,660 for a full-year worker) to $913 a week ($47,476
for a full-year worker) effective December 1, 2016.
FLSA Includes Several Provisions that Limit Its
Impact for Higher Ed: Although employees at higher
education institutions are generally covered by the
FLSAs minimum wage and overtime provisions,
several provisions apply to many personnel at these
institutions that make them ineligible for overtime and
unaffected by this rule, regardless of whether they earn
above the new salary threshold or not:
Bona fide teachers: Teachers are not subject to the
salary level requirement for the white collar exemption. Teachers are exempt if their primary duty is
teaching, tutoring, instructing, or lecturing. Teachers
include professors, adjunct instructors, and teachers

of skilled and semi-skilled trades and occupations.

Coaches: Athletic coaches and assistant coaches
may fall under the exemption if their primary duty
is teaching, which may include instructing athletes
in how to perform their sport. If, however, their
duties primarily include recruiting athletes or doing
manual labor, they are not considered teachers. A
coach could primarily be responsible for instructing athletes but also spend some time recruiting or
doing manual labor and still be considered ineligible
for overtime.
Graduate and undergraduate students: Generally, the
Department views graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged in research under a faculty
members supervision in the course of obtaining a
degree to be in an educational relationship and not
an employment relationship with the school or with
a grantor. As such, the Department will not assert
such workers are entitled to overtime. Graduate
students whose primary duty is teaching or serving
as a teaching assistant fall under the FLSAs teaching
exemption. Students who are participants in a bona
fide educational program and who serve as resident
advisors in exchange for reduced room and board
charges or tuition credit similarly are not considered to be in an employment relationship with the
institution.
Academic administrative personnel: The administrative personnel that help run higher education
institutions and interact with students outside the
classroom, such as department heads, academic
counselors and advisors, intervention specialists
and others with similar responsibilities are subject
to a special salary threshold that does not apply to
white-collar employees outside of higher education. These employees are not entitled to overtime
compensation if they are paid at least as much as the
entrance salary for teachers at their institution.
Public Higher Education Institutions May Utilize
Provisions for State and Local Employees: Employees
of public higher education institutions may also be
public sector employees for whom specific provisions

in the FLSA will further limit the impact of the final

rule. Specifically, public institutions may be able to use
compensatory (comp) time as an option to satisfy
their obligation to provide overtime compensation.
Comp time: Pursuant to an agreement with employees
or their representatives, state or local government
agencies, including higher education institutions
whose employees are treated as state employees under
state law, may provide their employees with comp
time instead of cash payment for overtime hours. Any
comp time arrangement must be established pursuant
to the applicable provisions of a collective bargaining
agreement, memorandum of understanding, any
other agreement between the public agency and
representatives of overtime-protected employees, or
an agreement or understanding arrived at between the
employer and employee before the performance of the
work. This agreement may be evidenced by a notice
to the employee that comp time will be given in lieu
of overtime pay (for example, providing the employee
a copy of the personnel regulations). The comp
time must be provided at a rate of one-and-one-half
hours for each overtime hour worked, instead of cash
overtime pay. For example, for most state government
employees, if they work 44 hours in one workweek (4
hours of overtime), they would be entitled to 6 hours
(1.5 times 4) of comp time. When used, the comp time
is paid at the regular rate of pay.
Most state and local government employees may
accrue up to 240 hours of comp time. Employees
engaged in seasonal activities (such as admissions
counselors) may accrue up to 480 hours of comp time.
An employee must be permitted to use comp time
on the date requested unless doing so would unduly
disrupt the operations of the agency.
Higher Ed Impact Is Limited by Other Rules and
Exemptions: Many employees of higher-education
institutions will not be affected by the rule, even if they
do not qualify for the special rules for teachers:
Hourly workers: The new threshold has no impact
on the pay of workers paid hourly. Generally, hourly
workers are entitled to overtime regardless of how
much they make if they work more than 40 hours
nothing in the new rule changes that.

Workers with regular workweeks of 40 or fewer hours:

To the extent that many salaried white-collar
employees at higher-education institutions have office
jobs where they work no more than 40 hours, the
changes to the overtime rules will have no effect on
their pay.
Workers who fail the duties test: Salaried workers who
do not primarily perform executive, administrative, or
professional duties are not eligible for the white collar
overtime exemption and therefore are not affected
by the final rule. Those employees already should be
getting paid overtime for any hours they work over 40
in one week.
Highly compensated workers: White collar workers
who fail the standard duties test but are highly
compensatedearn more than $134,004 in a
yearare almost all ineligible for overtime under the
highly compensated employee exemption, which has
a minimal duties test. This exemption would cover
some high-level managers at institutions of higher
education. (You can see more information on HCE
duties in WHD Fact Sheet #17H.)
A Limited Number of Higher Education Workers
Will Be Affected: The overtime rule will impact limited
groups of workers at higher-education institutions,
including:
Postdoctoral
researchers:

o Sciences: Postdoctoral researchers in the sciences
are not covered by the teaching exemption. These
employees are generally considered professional
employees and are subject to the salary threshold
for exemption from overtime. DOL has been
working closely with NIH and NSF regarding their
mutual interest in this area.
o Humanities: Many postdoctoral researchers in
the humanities also teach. To the extent that
they have a primary duty of teaching, they will
be subject to the teaching exemption and not
entitled to overtime compensation. If they do
not teach, however, and earn less than the new
threshold, they will be eligible for overtime.
Non-academic administrative employees: For
administrative employees who do not meet the
special provision for academic administrative
employees, such as admission counselors and recruiters, they will be eligible for overtime if they

2. OVERTIME FINAL RULE AND HIGHER EDUCATION

earn below the salary level set in the final rule

and they work more than 40 hours in a week.
Other salaried workers: To the extent that higher-education institutions employ workers whose
duties are not unique to the education setting
like managers in food service or supervisors of
security guardsthey will be covered by the final
rule, just like their counterparts at other kinds
of institutions and businesses, unless another
exemption applies.

Higher Education Employers Have

Discretion to Choose Between Several
Options
The Department does not dictate what option
employers should use to comply with the revised
regulations. In fact, many options are available to all
employers for complying with the new salary threshold.
These options include:
Raise salaries: For workers whose salaries are close
to the new threshold and who meet the duties test,
employers may choose to raise these workers salaries to meet the new threshold and maintain their
exempt status.
Evaluate and realign employee workload: Employers
can limit the need for employees to work overtime
by ensuring that workloads are distributed to minimize overtime and that staffing levels are appropriate for the workload.
Pay overtime above a salary: Employers also can
continue to pay newly overtime-eligible employees
a salary basis and pay overtime for hours in excess
of 40 per week. The law does not require that newly
overtime-eligible workers be paid on an hourly basis.
This approach works for employees who usually

work 40 hours or fewer, but have seasonal spikes

or periods of activity when overtime hours are
required, for which employers can plan and budget
the extra pay during those periods.
o For employees who work a fixed schedule that
rarely varies, the employer may simply keep a
record of the schedule and indicate the number of
hours the worker actually worked only when the
worker varies from the schedule.
o For an employee with a flexible schedule, an
employer does not need to require an employee
to sign in each time she starts and stops work. The
employer must keep an accurate record of the
number of daily hours worked by the employee.
So an employer could allow an employee to just
provide the total number of hours she worked
each day, including the number of overtime hours,
by the end of each pay period.
For public schools, utilize comp time: Public sector
employersunlike private sector employerscan
provide comp time at time and one-half rather
than cash overtime payments, in appropriate
circumstances.
Adjust employees base pay and pay overtime: Employers can adjust the amount of an employees
earnings to reallocate it between regular wages and
overtime pay. This method works for employees
who work a relatively small amount of predictable
overtime. The revised pay may be on a salaried or
hourly basis (there is no requirement to convert
workers to hourly pay status), but it must include
payment of overtime when the employee works
more than 40 hours in a week.
For more detail on the FLSA and higher education,
please see here.

3. OVERTIME FINAL RULE AND HIGHER EDUCATION