By Kate McGovern Torone, Editor

Yesterday, David Weil, administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, told attendees at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference that the new overtime regulations are here to stay.

DOL last month released much-anticipated overtime regulations, setting its Fair Labor Standards Act salary threshold for overtime exemption at $913 per week. The threshold amounts to $47,476 annually, up from $23,660. The final rule takes effect December 1, 2016.

Stakeholders and legislators have promised to fight the rule through several avenues. SHRM itself has urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would void the rules.

Weil, however, told the audience at SHRM that the rule is here to stay. The changes will stand the test of time and be around for more than just the next few years, he said, specifically referencing the salary threshold and its planned increases. Let’s “get over the phase of fighting,” he said at a conference session in Washington, D.C., June 19.

Weil said he thought long and hard about the salary threshold and feels very good about it. He said that WHD struck a balance by declining to alter the FLSA’s duties test. (The division had requested input on its duties test in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, indicating that it was considering changes.)

Moreover, the complaints about the rule are mere “myths” he said. Some say the rule will hurt the very workers it is supposed to help. “I simply don’t get that … notion,” Weil said, refuting claims that employers will cut hours or pay rates in response.

Neither is the rule going to create more litigation, as business groups have warned, Weil said. Litigation actually will be reduced because of the bright-line salary threshold, which will mean less misclassification, he added. “I think this rule creates more certainty and predictability for employers.”