Federal overtime threshold rule gone, for now

Potential future increases

The bill, The Restoring Overtime Pay Act of 2026 (HR 8868), would increase the federal minimum salary level as follows:

• 2026 — $45,000
• 2027 — $55,000
• 2028 — $65,000
• 2029 — $75,000
• 2030 — 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally*, updated annually

*The current 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally is $89,440 and could increase to $98,000 by 2030.

The measure would allow the Secretary of Labor to establish a higher salary threshold through notice and comment rulemaking, as long as it can be updated annually.

The bill would also require the following:

• The Secretary of Labor would need to provide annual, automatic updates to the overtime threshold of at least the 55th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers.
• If the Secretary doesn’t establish an increased salary threshold, the 55th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers nationally would take effect, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from the second quarter of the preceding calendar year.
• The Secretary would need to publish a notice announcing the revised salary threshold no later than 60 days before the revised threshold takes effect.
• The BLS would need to publicly publish data on its website for each week of each quarter and data on weekly earnings by census region.

The bill is in the first stage of the legislative process. It was referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. While it has a small chance of being enacted at this time, it does show that some members of Congress are interested in this topic.

Key to remember: Congress members introduced a bill increasing the federal salary threshold level. But for now, employers can use the 2019 federal salary threshold to determine whether they may classify an employee as exempt.