Sponsored Programs

The Department of Labor has approved changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which will be implemented December 1, 2016.  Many of the Research Foundation’s employees as well as our grant-funded projects will be impacted by these new regulations, which increase the minimum annual pre-tax salary for exempt employees from $23,660 ($455 per week) to $47,476 ($913 per week). This includes employees in a part-time position with job responsibilities that previously qualified them as an exempt employee as the new regulations do not allow us to prorate the $913 per week minimum salary to a full time equivalent.

To comply with the new regulations, the RF must:

• Convert employees that no longer qualify as exempt, to non-exempt positions.
• These employees must be paid for actual hours worked and will complete a bi-weekly timesheet to record their hours for payroll purposes. Hours worked over 40 in a workweek are paid at 1½ times their regular hourly salary rate.
• Ensure nonexempt employees take required meal periods
• Ensure the weekly salary of exempt employees is a minimum of $913 per week.
• Graduate students are not subject to the salary minimum and will not be impacted by this change in the regulations.  The regulations also exempt individuals who are classified as teachers or educators.

Sponsored Programs Human Resource representatives will be contacting affected employees and their supervisors regarding these changes.