Pennsylvania Wage and Hour Updates: (1) New Overtime Pay Regulation No Longer in Effect and (2) Mandatory Security Checks Are Compensable as Hours Worked

Karen Baillie published a client alert, “Pennsylvania Wage and Hour Updates: (1) New Overtime Pay Regulation No Longer in Effect and (2) Mandatory Security Checks Are Compensable as Hours Worked.”

There are two recent and important wage and hour developments of which Pennsylvania employers need to be aware. Unfortunately, most employers have not been planning for either of these new developments.

First, effective September 7, 2021, (2021 Act 70, dated July 9, 2021), the Pennsylvania General Assembly repealed the state regulation that had amended definitions for the executive, administrative and professional (EAP) exemptions from minimum wage and overtime obligations. This means that Pennsylvania now has no regulatory guidance at all setting forth definitions or salary requirements for EAP exemptions in Pennsylvania.

In the second recent wage and hour development, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedent interpreting the FLSA and instead found, on July 21, 2021, that time employees spent on an employer’s premises waiting for and undergoing mandatory security screenings is always compensable as hours worked within the meaning of the PMWA even if the amount of time is small. In re: Amazon.com, Inc., No. EAP 2019 (PA. July 21, 2021).

Click here to read the full client alert.

• This article was re-published in Perspectives (Sept. 2021), the bi-monthly electronic newsletter of the Pittsburgh Human Resources Association (PHRA). Click here to download the PDF of the article.