Puerto Rico Escapes New Overtime Rule Mandate

Puerto Rico, a U.S. Territory that generally hews to this nation's labor laws, will evade the new overtime exemptions final rule as it scrapes its way out of near financial ruin, having missed its constitutionally mandated sovereign bond payment on July 1. The rule sets the salary threshold for overtime exemption at $47,476 a year. It currently stands at $23,660 a year. Congress, however, has set up an Oversight Board that will review the island-nation's finances for two years while holding the new overtime rule in abeyance. Under terms of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (POMESA), signed into law on June 20, the U.S. Comptroller General will conduct a review and report back to Congress within two years. PROMESA dictates that the report shall take into consideration “regional, metropolitan, and non-metropolitan salary and cost-of-living differences" regarding the "white collar" overtime rule taking effect here on Dec. 1. The deadline for the report is June 30, 2018.