Special Report

The Year Ahead 2025:
Wage and Hour Considerations

While many anticipate a more business-friendly administration, the appointment of a seemingly pro-labor Republican as Labor Secretary and President Trump’s populist instincts could make it hard to predict what the year ahead will bring for wage and hour law.

Start-of-the-Year Status

 

Minimum salary for EAP exemptions

  • Vacated.
  • DOL has filed an appeal.

Independent contractor rule

  • Several lawsuits pending.
  • Trump Administration may restore regulations his DOL previously issued.

80-20 regulation for tipped employees

  • Vacated.
  • Employees will still seek to impose it, or some version of it, as a valid interpretation of the statutory language permitting a tip credit.

Federal contractors

  • Minimum wage mandate for federal contractors valid, for now, in most jurisdictions.
  • Trump executive order likely imminent.

What to Watch

  • Congressional weigh-in on Trump’s campaign promises:
    • No tax on tips or overtime?
    • Comp time for private employees?
    • Overtime determined based on an 80-hour cycle?
  • Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer: The degree to which she will be a wild card.
    • Will DOL shift focus from enforcement actions to education and job creation?
  • Wage and hour collective actions: Procedural shifting sands.
    • Erosion of “conditional” certification.
    • Bristol-Myers reins in nationwide collectives.
  • Enforcement + litigation: The extent to which the locus shifts to the states.
     
Justin R. Barnes and Eric R. Magus

The Year Ahead 2025: Back to the Future for Core Wage and Hour Concerns

 

Hosts: Justin R. Barnes, Principal and Wage and Hour Co-Leader, and Eric R. Magnus, Principal and Class Actions and Complex Litigation Co-Leader

“A corollary to the populist instincts of president-to-be Trump [i.e., his possible support for some increase to the federal minimum wage] is this issue about removing taxes on tips. This is something that could certainly happen in 2025 — and it would be the most important effect on the wage and hour practice in the entire time I have been practicing in this area.”
 

Listen to the podcast

 

Related resources

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A Reprieve for Employers: Texas Court Vacates DOL Rule Increasing Salary Level for Exempt Employees
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Fifth Circuit Strikes Down DOL Tip Credit Rule: What It Means for Employers
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DOL Returns to Pre-2021 Dual Jobs Regulation for Tipped Employee
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Labor Department Releases Independent Contractor Final Rule, Revising Standard
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Federal Contractors in Flux: Ninth Circuit Finds President Biden Can’t Mandate Minimum Wage Under EO 14026
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Proposed Rule Would End Subminimum Wage for Employees with Disabilities

Return to The Year Ahead 2025 Report

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