The overtime salary threshold, and why it moved back
Exempt status has a salary floor. Pay below it and the exemption fails, regardless of duties. The current floor is $684 a week, $35,568 a year for a full-time worker, with a higher floor of $107,432 for the highly compensated employee test.
How it got back to $684
The Department of Labor published a rule in April 2024 raising the floor to $844 a week from 1 July 2024 and $1,128 a week, $58,656 a year, from 1 January 2025. Before the second step took effect, a federal district court in Texas vacated the rule nationwide in November 2024 and reinstated the earlier standard. An appeal followed, and the appellate court affirmed the invalidation in September 2025. The result is that $684 a week is what applies now, and the $1,128 figure that many postings and handbooks still quote does not.
What that means on the ground
| Annual salary | Exempt under current threshold | Exempt if the 2024 rule had survived |
|---|---|---|
| $35,000 | No, below floor | No |
| $40,000 | Yes, if duties and salary basis pass | No |
| $50,000 | Yes, if duties pass | No |
| $58,656 | Yes, if duties pass | Yes |
| $65,000 | Yes, if duties pass | Yes |
The practical effect is a band of roughly $35,000 to $58,000 where an employee who was going to become exempt in 2025 never did. If you are in that band, paid a fixed salary, working 50-hour weeks and doing mostly non-managerial work, you are plausibly owed overtime.
The salary basis matters as much as the level
Meeting the number is not enough. An employer who docks the salary for partial days, or ties it to hours recorded, breaks the salary basis and loses the exemption entirely, which returns the worker to hourly overtime rights for the whole period, not just the docked week.
What to do
Total the hours worked over the last two years. Subtract the overtime you were paid. If you sat in that band and failed the duties test, the shortfall is recoverable for two years, or three on a wilful finding, plus an equal amount in damages.